The Inverted World

1

I had reached the age of six hundred and fifty miles. Beyond the door the guildsmen were assembling for the ceremony in which I would be admitted as a guild apprentice. It was a moment of excitement and apprehension, a concentration into a few minutes of all that my life had been until then.

My father was a guildsman, and I had always seen his life from a certain remove. I regarded it as an enthralling existence, charged with purpose, ceremony, and responsibility; he told me nothing of his life or work, but his uniform, his vague manner, and his frequent absences from the city hinted at a preoccupation with matters of utmost importance.

Within a few minutes the way would be open for me to join that life. It was an honour and a donning of responsibility, and no boy who had grown up inside the confining walls of the crèche could fail to respond to the thrill of this major step.

The crèche itself was a small building at the very south of the city. It was almost totally enclosed: a warren of corridors, rooms, and halls. There was no access to the rest of the city, except by way of a door which was normally locked, and the only opportunities for exercise existed in the small gymnasium and a tiny open space, bounded on all four sides by the high walls of the crèche buildings.

Like the other children I had been placed in the charge of the crèche administrators soon after my birth, and knew no other world. I had no memories of my mother: she had left the city soon after my birth.

It had been a dull but not unhappy experience. I had made some good friends, and one of them — a boy a few miles older than me called Gelman Jase — had become an apprentice guildsman a short time before me. I was looking forward to seeing Jase again. I had seen him once since his coming of age, when he returned briefly to the crèche, and already he had adopted the slightly preoccupied manner of the guildsmen, and I had learned nothing from him. Now that I too was about to become an apprentice I felt that he would have much to tell me.

The administrator returned to the ante-room in which I was standing.

“They’re ready,” he said. “Can you remember what you have to do?”

“Yes.”

“Good luck.”

I discovered that I was trembling, and the palms of my hands were moist. The administrator, who had brought me from the crèche that morning, grinned at me in sympathy. He thought he understood the ordeal I was suffering, but he knew, literally, only half of it.

After the guild ceremony there was more in store for me. My father had told me that he had arranged a marriage for me. I had taken the news calmly because I knew that guildsmen were expected to marry early, and I already knew the chosen girl. She was Victoria Lerouex, and she and I had grown up together in the crèche. I had not had much to do with her — there were not many girls in the crèche, and they tended to keep together in a tight-knit group — but we were less than strangers. Even so, the notion of being married was a new one and I had not had much time to prepare myself mentally for it.

The administrator glanced up at the clock.

“O.K., Helward. It’s time.”

We shook hands briefly, and he opened the door. He walked into the hall, leaving the door open. Through it I could see several of the guildsmen standing on the main floor. The ceiling lights were on.

The administrator stopped just beyond the door and turned to address the platform.

“My Lord Navigator. I seek audience.”

“Identify yourself.” A distant voice, and from where I was standing in the ante-room I could not see the speaker.

“I am Domestic Administrator Bruch. At the command of my chief administrator I have summoned one Helward Mann, who seeks ‘apprenticeship in a guild of the first order.”

“I recognize you, Bruch. You may admit the apprentice.”

Bruch turned and faced me, and as he had earlier rehearsed me I stepped forward into the hall. In the centre of the floor a small podium had been placed, and I walked over and took up position behind it.

I faced the platform.

Here in the concentrated brilliance of the spotlights sat an elderly man in a high-backed chair. He was wearing a black cloak decorated with a circle of white stitched on the breast. On each side of him stood three men, all wearing cloaks, but each one of these was decorated with a sash of a different colour. Gathered on the main floor of the hall, in front of the platform, were several other men and a few women. My father was among them.

Everyone was looking at me, and I felt my nervousness increase. My mind went blank, and all Bruch’s careful rehearsals were forgotten.

In the silence that followed my entrance, I stared straight ahead at the man sitting at the center of the platform. This was the first time I had even seen — let alone been in the company of — a Navigator. In my immediate background of the crèche such men had sometimes been spoken of in a deferential way, sometimes — by the more disrespectful — in a derisory way, but always with undertones of awe for the almost legendary figures. That one was here at all only underlined the importance of this ceremony. My immediate thought was what a story this would be to tell the others… and then I remembered that from this day nothing would be the same again.

Bruch had stepped forward to face me.

“Are you Helward Mann, sir?”

“Yes, I am.”

“What age have you attained, sir?”

“Six hundred and fifty miles.”

“Are you aware of the significance of this age?”

“I assume the responsibilities of an adult.”

“How best can you assume those responsibilities, sir?”

“I wish to enter apprenticeship with a first-order guild of my choice.”

“Have you made that choice, sir?”

“Yes, I have.”

Bruch turned and addressed the platform. He repeated the content of my answers to the men assembled there, though it seemed to me that they must have been able to hear my answers as I gave them.

“Does anyone wish to question the apprentice?” said the Navigator to the other men on the platform.

No one replied.

“Very well.” The Navigator stood up. “Come forward, Helward Mann, and stand where I can see you.”

Bruch stepped to one side. I left the podium, and walked forward to where a small white plastic circle had been inlaid into the carpet. I stopped with my feet in the centre of it. For several seconds I was regarded in silence.

The Navigator turned to one of the men at his side.

“Do we have the proposers here?”

“Yes, My Lord.”

“Very well. As this is a guild matter we must exclude all others.”

The Navigator sat down, and the man immediately to his right stepped forward.

“Is there any man here who does not rank with the first order? If so, he will grace us with his absence.”

Slightly behind me, and to one side of me, I noticed Bruch make a slight bow towards the platform, and then he left the hall. He was not alone. Of the group of people on the main floor of the hall, about half left the room by one or other of the exits. Those left turned to face me.

“Do we recognize strangers?” said the man on the platform. There was silence. “Apprentice Helward Mann, you are now in the exclusive company of first-order guildsmen. A gathering such as this is not common in the city, and you should treat it with appropriate solemnity. It is in your honour. When you have passed through your apprenticeship these people will be your peers, and you will be bound, just as they are, by guild rules. Is that understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You have selected the guild you wish to enter. Please name it for all to hear.”

“I wish to become a Future Surveyor,” I said.

“Very well, that is acceptable. I am Future Surveyor Clausewitz, and I am your chief guildsman. Standing around you are other Future Surveyors, as well as representatives from other first-order guilds. Here on the platform are the other chief guildsmen of the first order. In the centre, we are honoured by the presence of Lord Navigator Olsson.”

As Bruch had earlier rehearsed me I made a deep bow towards the Navigator. The bow was all I now remembered of his instructions: he had told me that he knew nothing of the details of this part of the ceremony, only that I should display appropriate respect towards the Navigator when formally introduced to him.

“Do we have a proposer for the apprentice?”

“Sir, I wish to propose him.” It was my father who spoke.

“Future Surveyor Mann has proposed. Do we have a seconder?”

“Sir, I will second the proposal.”

“Bridge-Builder Lerouex has seconded. Do we hear any dissent?”

There was a long silence. Twice more, Clausewitz called for dissent, but no one raised any objection to me.

“That is as it should be,” said Clausewitz. “Helward Mann, I now offer you the oath of a first-order guild. You may — even at this late stage — decline to take it. If, however, you do swear to the oath you will be bound to it for the whole of the rest of your life in the city. The penalty for breaching the oath is summary execution. Is that absolutely clear in your mind?”

I was stunned by this. Nothing anyone had said, my father, Jase, or even Bruch, had said anything to warn me of this. Perhaps Bruch had not known… but surely my father would have told me?

“Well?”

“Do I have to decide now, sir?”

“Yes.”

It was quite clear that I would not be allowed a sight of the oath before deciding. Its content was probably instrumental in the secrecy. I felt that I had very little alternative. I had come this far, and already I could feel the pressures of the system about me. To proceed as far as this — proposal and acceptance — and then to decline the oath was impossible, or so it seemed to me at that moment.

“I will take the oath, sir.”

Clausewitz stepped down from the platform, walked over to me, and handed me a piece of white card.

“Read this through, clearly and loudly,” he told me. “You may read it through to yourself before, if you wish, but if you do so you will be immediately bound by it.”

I nodded to show my understanding of this, and he returned to the stage. The Navigator stood up. I read the oath silently, familiarizing myself with its phrases.

I faced the platform, aware of the attention of the others on me, not least that of my father.

“I, Helward Mann, being a responsible adult and a citizen of Earth do solemnly swear:

“That as an apprentice to the guild of Future Surveyors I shall discharge whatever tasks I am given with the utmost effort;

“That I shall place the security of the city of Earth above all other concerns;

“That I shall discuss the affairs of my guild and other firstorder guilds with no one who is not himself an accredited and sworn apprentice or a first-order guildsman;

“That whatsoever I shall experience or see of the world beyond the city of Earth will be considered a matter of guild security;

“That on acceptance as a full guildsman I shall apprise myself of the contents of the document known as Destaine’s Directive, and that I shall make it my duty to obey its instructions, and that further I shall pass on the knowledge obtained from it to future generations of guildsmen.

“That the swearing of this oath shall be considered a matter of guild security.

“All this is sworn in the full knowledge that a betrayal of any one of these conditions shall lead to my summary death at the hands of my fellow guildsmen.”

I looked up at Clausewitz as I finished speaking. The very act of reading those words had filled me with an excitement I could hardly contain.

“Beyond the city…” That meant I would leave the city, venture as an apprentice into the very regions which had been forbidden me, and were even yet forbidden to most of those in the city. The crèche was full of rumours about what lay outside the city, and already I had any number of wild imaginings about it. I was sensible enough to realize that the reality could never equal those rumours for inventiveness, but even so the prospect was one that dazzled and appalled me. The cloak of secrecy that the guildsmen placed around it seemed to imply that something dreadful was beyond the walls of the city; so dreadful that a penalty of death was the price paid for revealing its nature.

Clausewitz said: “Step up to the platform, Apprentice Mann.”

I walked forward, climbing the four steps that led up to the stage. Clausewitz greeted me, shaking me by the hand, and taking away from me the card with the oath. I was introduced first to the Navigator, who spoke a few amiable words to me, and then to the other chief guildsmen. Clausewitz told me not only their names but also their titles, some of which were new to me. I was beginning to feel overwhelmed with new information, that I was learning in a few moments as much as I had learned inside the crèche in all my life to that date.

There were six first-order guilds. In addition to Clausewitz’s Future Surveyors guild, there was a guild responsible for Traction, another for Track-Laying and another for Bridge-Building. I was told that these were the guilds primarily responsible for the administration of the city’s continued existence. In support of these were two further guilds: Militia and Barter. All this was new to me, but now I recalled that my father had sometimes referred in passing to men who bore as titles the names of their guilds. I had heard of the Bridge-Builders, for instance, but until this ceremony I had had no conception that the building of a bridge was an event surrounded by an aura of ritual and secrecy. How was a bridge fundamental to the city’s survival? Why was a militia necessary?

Indeed, what was the future?

I was taken by Clausewitz to meet the Future guildsmen, among them of course my father. There were only three present; the rest, I was told, were away from the city. With these introductions finished I spoke to the other guildsmen, there being at least one representative from each of the first-order guilds. I was gaining the impression that the work of a guildsman outside the city was a major occupier of time and resources, for on several occasions one or other of the guildsmen would apologize for there being no more of their number at the ceremony, but that they were away from the city.

During these conversations one unusual fact struck me. It was something that I had noticed earlier, but had not registered consciously. This was that my father and the other Future guildsmen appeared to be considerably older than the others. Clausewitz himself was strongly built, and he stood magnificently in his cloak, but the thinness of his hair and his lined face betrayed a considerable age; I estimated him to be at least two thousand five hundred miles old. My father too, now I could see him in the company of his contemporaries, seemed remarkably old. He was of an age similar to Clausewitz, and yet logic denied this. It would mean that my father would have been about one thousand eight hundred miles at the time I was born and I already knew that it was the custom in the city to produce children as soon after reaching maturity as possible.

The other guildsmen were considerably younger. Some were evidently only a few miles older than myself; a fact which gave me some encouragement as now I had entered the adult world I wished to be finished with the apprenticeship at the earliest opportunity. The implication was that the apprenticeship had no fixed term, and if, as Bruch had said, status in the city was as a result of ability, then with application I could become a full guildsman within a relatively short period of time.

There was one person missing, whom I would have liked to be there. That was Jase.

Speaking to one of the Traction guildsmen, I asked after him.

“Gelman Jase?” he said. “I think he’s away from the city.”

“Couldn’t he have come back for this?” I said. “We shared a cabin in the crèche.”

“Jase will be away for many miles to come.”

“Where is he?”

The guildsman only smiled at this, infuriating me… for surely, now I had taken the oath I could be told?

Later, I noticed that no other apprentices were present. Were they all away from the city? If so, that probably meant that very soon I too could leave.

After a few minutes talking to the guildsmen, Clausewitz called for attention.

“I propose to recall the administrators,” he said. “Are there any objections?”

There was a sound of general approval from the guildsmen.

“In which case,” Clausewitz continued, “I would remind the apprentice that this is the first occasion of many on which he is bound by his oath.”

Clausewitz moved down from the platform, and two or three of the guildsmen opened the doors of the hail. Slowly, the other people returned to the ceremony. Now the atmosphere lightened considerably. As the hall filled up I heard laughter, and in the background I noticed that a long table was being set up. There seemed to be no rancour from the administrators about their exclusion from the ceremony that had just taken place. I assumed that it was a common enough event for it to be taken as a matter of course, but it crossed my mind to wonder how much they were able to surmise. When secrecy takes place in the open, as it were, it lays itself open to speculation. Surely no security could be so tight that merely dismissing them from a room while an oath-taking ceremony took place would keep them in the dark as to what was happening? As far as I could tell, there had been no guards at the door; what was there to prevent someone eavesdropping while I spoke the oath?

I had little time to consider this for the room was filled with activity. People spoke together in an animated way, and there was much noise as the long table was laid with large plates of food and many different kinds of drink. I was led from one group of people to another by my father, and I was introduced to so many people that I was soon unable to remember names or titles.

“Shouldn’t you introduce me to Victoria’s parents?” I said, seeing Bridge-Builder Lerouex standing to one side with a woman administrator who I assumed was his wife.

“No… that comes later.” He led me on, and soon I was shaking hands with yet another group of people.

I was wondering where Victoria was, for surely now that the guild ceremony was out of the way our engagement should be announced. By now I was looking forward to seeing her. This was partly due to curiosity, but also because she was someone I already knew. I felt outnumbered by people both older and more experienced than me, and Victoria was a contemporary. She too was of the crèche, she had known the same people as me, was of a similar age. In this room full of guildsmen she would have been a welcome reminder of what was now behind me. I had taken the major step into adulthood, and that was enough for one day.

Time passed. I had not eaten since Bruch had woken me, and the sight of the food reminded me of how hungry I was. My attention was drifting away from this more social aspect of the ceremony. It was all too much at once. For another half an hour I followed my father around, talking without much interest to the people to whom I was introduced, but what I should really have welcomed at that moment was some time left to myself, so that I could think over all that I had learned.

Eventually, my father left me talking to a group of people from the synthetics administration (the group which, I learned, was responsible for the production of all the various synthetic foods and organic materials used in the city) and moved over to where Lerouex was standing. I saw them speak together briefly, and Lerouex nodded.

In a moment my father returned, and took me to one side.

“Wait here, Helward,” he said. “I’m going to announce your engagement. When Victoria comes into the room, come over to me.”

He hurried away and spoke to Clausewitz. The Navigator returned to his seat on the platform.

“Guildsmen and administrators!” Clausewitz called over the noise of the conversations. “We have a further celebration to announce. The new apprentice is to be engaged to the daughter of Bridge-Builder Lerouex. Future Surveyor Mann, would you care to speak?”

My father walked to the front of the hall and stood before the platform. Speaking too quickly, he made a short speech about me. On top of everything else that had happened that morning this came as a new embarrassment. Uneasy together, my father and I had never been so close as he made out by his words. I wanted to stop him, wanted to leave the room until he had finished, but it was clear I was still the centre of interest. I wondered if the guildsmen had any idea how they were alienating me from their sense of ceremony and occasion.

To my relief, my father finished but stayed in front of the platform. From another part of the hail Lerouex said that he wished to present his daughter. A door opened and Victoria came in, led by her mother.

As my father had instructed I walked over and joined him. He shook me by the hand. Lerouex kissed Victoria. My father kissed her, and presented her with a finger-ring. Another speech was made. Eventually, I was introduced to her. We had no chance to speak together.

The festivities continued.

2

I was given a key to the crèche, told that I might continue to use my cabin until accommodation could be found in guild quarters, and reminded once more of my oath. I went straight to sleep.

I was awakened early by one of the guildsmen I had met the previous day. His name was Future Denton. He waited while I dressed myself in my new apprentice’s uniform, and then led me out of the crèche. We did not take the same route as that along which Bruch had led me the day before, but climbed a series of stairs. The city was quiet. Passing a clock I saw that the time was still very early indeed, just after three-thirty in the morning. The corridors were empty of people, and most of the ceiling lights were dimmed.

We came eventually to a spiral staircase, at the top of which was a heavy steel door. Future Denton took a flashlight from his pocket, and switched it on. There were two locks to the door, and as he opened it he indicated that I should step through before him.

I emerged into coldness and darkness, such extremes of both that they came as a physical shock. Denton closed the door behind him, and locked it again. As he shone his flashlight around I saw that we were standing on a small platform, enclosed by a handrail about three feet high. We walked over and stood at the rail. Denton switched off his light, and the darkness was complete.

“Where are we?” I said.

“Don’t talk. Wait… and keep watching.”

I could see absolutely nothing. My eyes, still adjusted to the comparative brightness of the corridors, tricked my senses into detecting coloured shapes moving about me, but in a moment these stilled. The darkness was not the major preoccupation; already the movement of the cold air across my body had chilled me and I was trembling. I could feel the steel of the rail in my hands like a spear of ice, and I moved my hands trying to minimize the discomfort. It was not possible to let go though. In that absolute dark the rail was my only hold on the familiar. I had never before been so isolated from what I knew, never before been confronted with such an impact of things unknown. My whole body was tense, as if bracing itself against some sudden detonation or physical shock, but none came. All about me was cold and dark and overwhelmingly silent bar the sound of the wind in my ears.

As the minutes passed, and my eyes became better able to adjust, I discovered I could make out vague shapes about me. I could see Future Denton beside me, a tall black figure in his cloak, outlined against the lesser darkness of what was above him. Beneath the platform on which we stood I could detect a huge, irregularly shaped structure, black and black on black.

Around all this was impenetrable darkness. I had no point of reference, nothing against which I could make distinctions of form or outline. It was frightening, but in a way which struck emotionally, not in such a way that I felt at all threatened physically. Sometimes I had dreamed of such a place, and then I had awakened still experiencing the after-images of an impression such as this. This was no dream; the bitter cold could not be imagined, nor could the startling clarity of the new sensations of space and dimension. I knew only that this was my first venture outside the city — for this was all it could be — and that it was nothing like I had ever anticipated.

Fully appreciating this, the effect of the cold and dark on my orientation became of subsidiary importance. I was outside… this was what I had been waiting for!

There was no further need for Denton’s admonition to silence; I could say nothing, and had I tried the words would have died in my throat or been lost on the wind. It was all I could do to look, and in looking I saw nothing but the deep, mysterious cape of a land under the clouded night.

A new sensation affected me: I could smell the soil! It was unlike anything I had ever smelled in the city, and my mind conjured a spurious image of many square miles of rich brown soil, moist in the night. I had no way of telling what it was I could actually smell — it was probably not soil at all — but this image of rich, fertile ground had been one that endured for me from one of the books I had read in the crèche. It was enough to imagine it and once more my excitement lifted, sensing the cleansing effect of the wild, unexplored land beyond the city. There was so much to see and do… and even yet, standing on the platform, it was still for those few precious moments the exclusive domain of the imagination. I needed to see nothing; the simple impact of this fundamental step beyond the city’s confines was enough to spark my underdeveloped imagination into realms which until that moment had been fed only by the writings of the authors I had read.

Slowly, the blackness became less dense, until the sky above me was a dark gray. In the far distance I could see where the clouds met the horizon, and even as I watched I saw a line of the faintest red begin to etch the shape of one small cloud. As if the impact of the light was propelling it, this cloud and all the others were moving slowly above us, borne on the wind away from the direction of the glow. The redness spread, touching the clouds for a few moments as they moved away, leaving behind a large area of clear sky which was itself coloured a deep orange. My whole attention was rivetted on this sight, for it was quite simply the most beautiful thing I had experienced in my whole life. Almost imperceptibly, the orange colour was spreading and lightening; still the clouds which moved away were singed with red, but at the very point at which the horizon met the sky there was an intensity of light which grew brighter by the minute.

The orange was dying. Far more quickly than I would ever have guessed, it thinned away as the source of light brightened. The sky now was a blue so pale and brilliant that it was almost white. In the centre of it, as if growing up from the horizon, was a spear of white light, leaning slightly to one side like a toppling church steeple. As it grew it thickened and brightened, becoming as the seconds passed so brilliant and incandescent that it was not possible to stare directly at it.

Future Denton suddenly gripped my arm.

“Look!” he said, pointing to the left of the centre of brilliance. A formation of birds, spread out in a delicate V, was flapping slowly from left to right across our vision. After a few moments, the birds crossed directly in front of the growing column of light, and for a few seconds they could not be seen.

“What are they?” I said, my voice sounding coarse and harsh.

“Just geese.”

They were visible again now, flying slowly on with the blue sky behind them. After a minute or so they became lost to sight beyond high ground some distance away.

I looked again at the rising sun. In the short time I had been looking at the birds it had been transformed. Now the bulk of its body had appeared above the horizon, and it hung in sight, a long, saucer-shape of light, spiked above and below with two perpendicular spires of incandescence. I could feel the touch of its warmth on my face. The wind was dropping.

I stood with Denton on that small platform, looking out across the land. I saw the city, or what part of it was visible from the platform, and I saw the last of the clouds disappearing across the horizon furthest from the sun. It shone down on us from a cloudless sky, and Denton removed his cloak.

He nodded to me, and showed me how we could climb down from the platform, by way of a series of metal ladders, to the land below. He went first. As I stepped down, and stood for the first time on natural ground, I heard the birds which had nested in the upper crannies of the city begin their morning song.

3

Future Denton walked with me once around the periphery of the city, then took me out across the ground towards a small cluster of temporary buildings which had been erected about five hundred yards from the city. Here he introduced me to Track Maichuskin, then returned to the city.

The Track was a short, hairy man, still half-asleep. He didn’t seem to resent the intrusion, and treated me with some politeness.

“Apprentice Future, are you?”

I nodded. “I’ve just come from the city.”

“First time out?”

“Yes.”

“Had any breakfast?”

“No… the Future got me out of bed, and we’ve come more or less straight here.”

“Come inside… I’ll make some coffee.”

The interior of the hut was rough and untidy, in contrast to what I had seen within the city. There cleanliness and tidiness seemed to be of great importance, but Malchuskin’s hut was littered with dirty pieces of clothing, unwashed pots and pans, and half-eaten meals. In one corner was a large pile of metal tools and instruments, and against one wall was a bunk, the covers thrown back in a heap. There was a background smell of old food.

Malchuskin filled a pan with water, and placed it on a cooking-ring. He found two mugs somewhere, rinsed them in the butt, and shook them to remove the surplus water. He put a measure of synthetic coffee into a jug, and when the water boiled filled it up.

There was only one chair in the hut. Malchuskin removed some heavy steel tools from the table, and moved it over to the bunk. He sat down, and indicated that I should pull up the chair. We sat in silence for a while, sipping the coffee. It was made in exactly the same way as it was in the city, and yet it seemed to taste different.

“Haven’t had too many apprentices lately.”

“Why’s that?” I said.

“Can’t say. Not many of them coming up. Who are you?”

“Helward Mann. My father’s—”

“Yeah, I know. Good man. We were in the crèche together.”

I frowned to myself at that. Surely, he and my father were not of the same age? Malchuskin saw my expression.

“Don’t let it bother you,” he said. “You’ll understand one day. You’ll find out the hard way, just like everything else this goddamn guild system makes you learn. It’s a strange life in the Future guild. It wasn’t for me, but I guess you’ll make out.”

“Why didn’t you want to be a Future?”

“I didn’t say I didn’t want it… I meant it wasn’t my lot. My own father was a Tracksman. The guild system again. But you want it hard, they’ve put you in the right hands. Done much manual work?”

“No…”

He laughed out loud. “The apprentices never have. You’ll get used to it.” He stood up. “It’s time we started. It’s early, but now you’ve got me out of bed there’s no point being idle. They’re a lazy lot of bastards.”

He left the hut. I finished the rest of my coffee in a hurry, scalding my tongue, and went after him. He was walking towards the other two buildings. I caught him up.

With a metal wrench he had taken from the hut he banged loudly on the door of each of the other two buildings, bawling at whoever was inside to get up. I saw from the marks on the doors that he probably always hit them with a piece of metal.

We heard movement inside.

Malchuskin went back to his hut and began sorting through some of the tools.

“Don’t have too much to do with these men,” he warned me. “They’re not from the city. There’s one of them, I’ve put him in charge. Rafael. He speaks a little English, and acts as interpreter. If you want anything, speak to him. Better still, come to me. There’s not likely to be trouble, but if there is… call me. O.K.?”

“What kind of trouble?”

“They don’t do what you or I tell them. They’re being paid, and they get paid to do what we want. It’s trouble if they don’t. But the only thing wrong with this lot is that they’re too lazy for their own good. That’s why we start early. It gets hot later on, and then we might as well not bother.”

It was already warm. The sun had risen high while I had been with Malchuskin, and my eyes were beginning to water. They weren’t accustomed to such bright light. I had tried to glance at the sun again, but it was impossible to look directly at it.

“Take these!” Malchuskin passed me a large armful of steel wrenches, and I staggered under the weight, dropping two or three. He watched in silence as I picked them up, ashamed at my ineptitude.

“Where to?” I said.

“The city, of course. Don’t they teach you anything in there?”

I headed away from the hut towards the city. Malchuskin watched from the door of his hut.

“South side!” he shouted after me. I stopped, and looked round helplessly. Malchuskin came over to me.

“There.” He pointed. “The tracks at the south of the city. O.K.?”

“O.K.” I walked in that direction, dropping only one more wrench on the way.

After an hour or two I began to see what Malchuskin had meant about the men who worked with us. They stopped at the slightest excuse, and only Malchuskin’s bawling or Rafael’s sullen instructions kept them at it.

“Who are they?” I asked Malchuskin when we stopped for a fifteen-minute break.

“Local men.”

“Couldn’t we hire some more?”

“They’re all the same round here.”

I sympathized with them to a certain degree. Out in the open, with no shade at all, the work was vigorous and hard. Although I was determined not to slacken, the physical strain was more than I could bear. Certainly, it was more strenuous than anything I had ever experienced.

The tracks at the south of the city ran for about half a mile, ending in no particular place. There were four tracks, each consisting of two metal rails supported on timber sleepers which were in turn resting on sunken concrete foundations. Two of the tracks had already been considerably shortened by Malchuskin and his crew, and we were working on the longest one still extant, the one laid as right outer.

Malchuskin explained that if I assumed the city was to the front of us, the four tracks were identified by left and right, outer and inner in each case.

There was little thought involved. What had to be done was routine, but heavy.

In the first place the tie-bars connecting the rail to the sleepers had to be released for the whole length of the section of rail. This was then laid to one side, and the other rail similarly released. Next we tackled the sleepers. These were attached to the concrete foundations by two clamps, each of which had to be slackened and removed manually. When the sleeper came free it was stacked on a bogie which was waiting on the next section of track. The concrete foundation, which I discovered was prefabricated and re-usable, then had to be dug out of its soil emplacement and similarly placed on the bogie. When all this was done, the two steel rails were placed on special racks along the side of the bogie.

Malchuskin or I would then drive the battery-powered bogie up to the next section of track, and the process would be repeated. When the bogie was fully loaded, the entire track-crew would ride on it up to the rear of the city. Here it would be parked, and the battery recharged from an electrical point fitted to the wall of the city for this purpose.

It took us most of the morning to load the bogie and take it up to the city. My arms felt as if they had been stretched from their sockets, my back was aching, I was filthy dirty and I was covered with sweat. Malchuskin, who had done no less work than any of the others — probably more than any of the hired labour — grinned at me.

“Now we unload and start again,” he said.

I looked over at the labourers. They looked like I felt, although I suspected I too had done more work than they, considering I was new to it and hadn’t yet learnt the art of using my muscles economically. Most of them were lying back in what little shadow was afforded by the bulk of the city.

“O.K.,” I said.

“No… I was joking. You think that lot’d do any more without a bellyful of food?”

“No.”

“Right, then… we eat.”

He spoke to Rafael, then walked back across towards his hut. I went with him, and we shared some of the heated-up synthetic food that was all he could offer.

The afternoon started with the unloading. The sleepers, foundations, and rails were loaded on to another battery-powered vehicle which travelled on four large balloon tyres. When the transfer was completed, we took the bogie down to the end of the track and began again. The afternoon was hot, and the men worked slowly. Even Malchuskin had eased up, and after the bogie had been refilled with its next load he called a halt.

“Like to have got another load in today,” he said, and took a long draught from a bottle of water.

“I’m ready,” I said.

“Maybe. You want to do it on your own?”

“But I’m willing,” I said, not wanting to reveal the exhaustion I was feeling.

“As it is you’ll be useless tomorrow. No, we get this bogie unloaded, run it down to the track-end, and that’s it.”

That wasn’t quite it, as things turned out. When we returned the bogie to the track-end, Malchuskin started the men filling in the last section of the track with as much loose soil and dirt as we could find. This rubble was laid for twenty yards.

I asked Malchuskin its purpose.

He nodded over towards the nearest long track, the left inner. At its end was a massive concrete buttress, stayed firmly into the ground.

“You’d rather put up one of those instead?” he said.

“What is it?”

“A buffer. Suppose the cables all broke at once… the city’d run backwards off the rails. As it is the buffers wouldn’t put up much resistance, but it’s all we can do.”

“Has the city ever run back?”

“Once.”

Malchuskin offered me the choice of returning to my cabin in the city, or remaining with him in his hut. The way he put it didn’t leave me much choice. He obviously had low regard for the people inside the city and told me he rarely Went inside.

“It’s a cosy existence,” he said. “Half the people in the city don’t know what’s going on out here, and I don’t suppose they’d care if they did know.”

“Why should they have to know? After all, if we can keep working smoothly, it’s not their problem.”

“I know, I know. But I wouldn’t have to use these damned local men if more city people came out here.”

In the near-by dormitory huts the hired men were talking noisily; some were singing.

“Don’t you have anything at all to do with them?”

“I just use them. They’re the Barter people’s pigeon. If they get too lousy I lay them off and get the Barters to find me some more. Never difficult. Work’s in short supply round here.”

“Where is this?”

“Don’t ask me… that’s up to your father and his guild. I just dig up old tracks.”

I sensed that Malchuskin was less alienated from the city than he made out. I supposed his relatively isolated existence gave him some contempt for those within the city, but as far as I could see he didn’t have to stay out here in the hut. Lazy the workers might be, and just now noisy, but they seemed to act in an orderly manner. Maichuskin made no attempt to supervise them when there was no work to be done, so he could have stayed in the city if he chose.

“Your first day out, isn’t it?” he said suddenly.

“That’s right.”

“You want to watch the sunset?”

“No… why?”

“The apprentices usually do.”

“O.K.”

Almost as if it were to please him I went out of the hut and looked past the bulk of the city towards the north-east. Malchuskin came up behind me.

The sun was near the horizon and already I could feel the wind cold on my back. The clouds of the previous night had not returned, and the sky was clear and blue. I watched the sun, able to look at it without hurting my eyes now that its rays were diffused by the thickness of the atmosphere. It had the shape of a broad orange disk, slightly tilted down towards us. Above and below, tall spires of light rose from the centre of the disk. As we watched it sank slowly beneath the horizon, the upper point of light being the last to vanish.

“You sleep in the city, you don’t get to see that,” Malchuskin said.

“It’s very beautiful,” I said.

“You see the sunrise this morning?”

“Yes.”

Malchuskin nodded. “That’s what they do. Once a kid’s made it to a guild, they throw him in at the deep end. No explanation, right? Out in the dark, until up comes the sun.”

“Why do they do that?”

“Guild system. They believe it’s the quickest way to get an apprentice to understand that the sun isn’t the same as he’s been taught.”

“Isn’t it?” I said.

“What were you taught?”

“That the sun is spherical.”

“So they still teach that. Well, now you’ve seen that the sun isn’t. Make anything of it?”

“No.”

“Think about it. Let’s go and eat.”

We returned to the hut and Malchuskin directed me to start heating up some food while he bolted another bunk-frame on top of the vertical supports around his own. He found some bedding in a cupboard, and dumped it on the bunk.

“You sleep here,” he said, indicating the upper bunk. “You restless at night?”

“I don’t think so.”

“We’ll try it for one night. If you keep moving around, we’ll change over. I don’t like being disturbed.”

I thought there was little chance I would disturb him. I could have slept on the side of a cliff that night, I was so tired. We ate the tasteless food together, and afterwards Malchuskin talked about his work on the tracks. I paid him scant attention, and a few minutes later I lay on my bunk, pretending to listen to him. I fell asleep almost at once.

4

I was woken the next morning by Maichuskin moving about the hut, clattering the dishes from the previous evening’s meal. I made to get out of the bunk as soon as I was fully conscious, but at once I was paralysed by a stab of pain in my back. I gasped.

Malchuskin looked up at me, grinning.

“Stiff?” he said.

I rolled over on to my side, and tried to draw my legs up. These too were stiff and painful, but with a considerable effort I managed to get myself into a sitting position. I sat still for a moment, hoping that the pain was cramp and that it would pass.

“Always the same with you kids from the city,” Malchuskin said, but without malice. “You come out here, keen I’ll grant you. A day’s work and you’re so stiff you become useless. Don’t you get any exercise in the city?”

“Only in the gymnasium.”

“O.K… get down here and have some breakfast. After that, you’d better go back to the city. Have a hot bath, and see if you can find someone to give you a massage. Then report back here.”

I nodded gratefully and clambered down from the bunk. This was no easier and no less painful than anything else I’d attempted so far. I discovered that my arms, neck, and shoulders were as stiff as the rest of me.

I left the hut thirty minutes later, just as Malchuskin was bawling at the men to get started. I headed back towards the city, limping slowly.

It was the first time I had been left to my own devices away from the city. When in the company of others, one never sees as much as when alone. The city was five hundred yards from Malchuskin’s hut, and that was an adequate distance to be able to get some impression of its overall size and appearance. Yet during the whole of the previous day I had been able to afford it only the barest of glances. It was simply a large, gray bulk, dominating the landscape.

Now, hobbling alone across the ground towards it I could inspect it in more detail.

From the limited experience I had had of the interior of the city, I had never given much thought to what it might look like from outside. I had always conceived of it as being large, but the reality was that the city was rather smaller than I had imagined. At its highest point, on the northern side, it was approximately two hundred feet high, but the rest of it was a jumble of rectangles and cubes, fitted into what seemed to be a patternless arrangement of varying elevations. It was a dull brown and gray colour, made as far as I could tell from many different kinds of timber. There seemed to be very little use of concrete or metals, and nothing was painted. This external appearance contrasted sharply with the interior — or at least, those few areas I had seen — which were clean and brightly decorated. As Malchuskin’s hut was directly to the west of the city, it was impossible for me to estimate the width as I walked towards it, though I estimated its length to be about one thousand five hundred feet. I was surprised how ugly it was, and how old it appeared to be. There was much activity about, particularly to the north.

As I came near to the city it occurred to me that I had no idea how I could enter it. Yesterday, Future Denton had taken me around the exterior of the city, but my mind had been so swamped with new impressions that I had absorbed very few of the details pointed out to me. It had looked so different then.

My only clear memory was that there was a door behind the platform from which we had observed the sunrise, and I determined to head for that. This was not as easy as I imagined.

I went to the south of the city, stepping over the tracks which I had been working on the previous day, and moved round to the east side, where I felt sure Denton and I had descended by way of a series of metal ladders. After a long search I found such an access, and began to climb. I went wrong several times, and only after a long period of clambering painfully along catwalks and climbing gingerly up ladders did I locate the platform. I found that the door was still locked.

I had no alternative but to ask. I climbed down to the ground, and went once more to the south of the city where Malchuskin and the gang of men had started work again on dismantling the track.

With an air of aggrieved patience, Malchuskin left Rafael in charge, and showed me what to do. He led me up the narrow space between the two inner tracks, directly beneath the lip of the city’s edge. Underneath the city it was dark and cool.

We stopped by a metal staircase.

“At the top of that there’s an elevator,” he said. “You know what that is?”

“Yes.”

“You’ve got a guild key?”

I fumbled in a pocket and produced an irregularly shaped piece of metal that Clausewitz had given me. It opened the lock on the crèche door. “Is this it?”

“Yes. There’s a lock on the elevator. Go to the fourth level, find an administrator, and ask if you can use the bathroom.”

Feeling very stupid I did as he directed. I heard Malchuskin laughing as he walked back towards the daylight. I found the elevator without difficulty, but the doors would not open when I turned the key. I waited. A few moments later the doors opened abruptly, and two guildsmen came out. They took no notice of me, and went down the steps to the ground.

Suddenly, the doors began to close of their own accord, and I hurried inside. Before I could find any way of controlling the elevator, it began to move upwards. I saw a row of keyed buttons placed on the wall near the door, numbered from one to seven. I jabbed my key into number four, hoping that this was the right one. The elevator-car seemed to be moving for a long time, but then it halted abruptly. The doors opened and I stepped forward. As I came out into the passageway, three more guildsmen stepped into the car.

I caught a glimpse of a painted sign on the wall opposite the car: SEVENTH LEVEL. I had come too far. Just as the doors were closing, I hurried inside again.

“Where are you going, apprentice?” one of the guildsmen said.

“Fourth level.”

“O.K., relax.”

He used his own key on number four, and this time when the car stopped it was on the right level. I mumbled my thanks to the guildsman who had spoken to me, and stepped out of the elevator.

In my various preoccupations I had been able to overlook the discomforts in my body for the last few minutes, but now I felt tired and ill once more. In this part of the city there seemed to be so much activity: many people moving about the corridors, conversations going on, doors opening and closing. It was different from outside the city, for there was a timeless quality to the still countryside, and although people moved and worked out there the atmosphere was more leisurely. The labours of men like Malchuskin and his gang had an elemental purpose, but here, in the heart of the upper levels which had for so long been forbidden to me, all was mysterious and complicated.

I remembered Malchuskin’s instructions and, choosing a door at random, I opened it and went inside. There were two women inside; they were amused but helpful when I told them what I wanted.

A few minutes later I lowered my aching body into a bathful of hot water, and closed my eyes.

It had taken me so much time and effort to get my bath, that I had wondered whether I would benefit by it at all; the fact was that when I had towelled myself dry and dressed again the stiffness was not nearly as bad. There were still traces of it when I stretched my muscles, but the tiredness had gone from my body.

My early return to the city had inevitably brought Victoria to mind. The glimpse I had had of her at the ceremony had heightened my curiosity. The thought of returning immediately to dig old sleepers out of the ground paled somewhat — although I felt I shouldn’t stay away from Malchuskin for too long — and I decided to see if I could find her.

I left the bathroom, and hurried back to the elevator. It was not in use, but I had to summon it to the floor I was on. When it arrived I was able to study its controls in rather more detail. I decided to experiment.

I travelled first to the seventh level, but from a brief excursion into its corridors I could see no immediately obvious difference from the level I had just left. The same was true for most of the other levels, though there was more apparent activity on the third, fourth, and fifth. The first level was the dark tunnel actually beneath the city itself.

I travelled up and down a couple of times, discovering that there was a surprisingly long distance between the first and second levels. All other distances were very short. I left the elevator at the second level, feeling intuitively that this would be where I would find the crèche, and that if I was wrong I would go in search of it on foot.

Opposite the elevator entrance on the second level was a flight of steps descending to a transverse corridor. I had a vague recollection of this from when Bruch had taken me up to the ceremony, and soon I came across the door leading in to the crèche.

Once inside, I locked the door with the guild key. It was all so familiar. I realized that until the moment I shut the door my movements had been guarded and cautious, but now I felt at home. I hurried down the steps, and walked along the short corridor of the area I knew so well. It looked different from the rest of the city, and it smelt different. I saw the familiar scratches on the walls, where generations of children before me had inscribed their names, saw the old brown paint, the worn coverings on the floors, the unlockable doors to the cabins. Out of long habit I headed straight for my cabin, and went inside. Everything here was untouched. The bed had been made up, and the cabin was tidier than it had ever been when I was using it regularly, but my few possessions were still in place. So too were Jase’s, though there was no sign of him.

I looked round once more, then returned to the corridor. The purpose of the visit to my cabin had been fulfilled: I had no purpose. I headed on down the corridor, towards the various rooms where we had been given lessons. Muted noises came through the closed doors. I peered through the circular glass peepholes, and saw the classes in progress. A few days earlier, I had been in there. In one room I saw my erstwhile contemporaries; some of them, like me, no doubt headed for an apprenticeship with one of the first-order guilds, most of them destined for administrative jobs in the city. I was tempted to go in and take their questions in my stride, maintaining a mysterious silence.

There was no segregation of the sexes in the crèche, and in each room I peered into I searched for a sight of Victoria; she did not appear to be there. When I had checked all the classrooms I went down to the general area: the dining-hall (here there was background noise of the midday meal being prepared), the gymnasium (empty), and the tiny open space, which gave access only to the blue sky above. I went to the commonroom, that one place in the whole extent of the crèche which could be used for general recreation. Here there were several boys, some of whom I had been working with only a few days before. They were talking idly — as was usual when left alone for the purposes of private study — but as soon as they noticed me I became the centre of attention. It was the situation I had just now resisted.

They wanted to know which guild I had joined, what I was doing, what I had seen. What happened when I came of age? What was outside the crèche?

Curiously, I wouldn’t have been able to answer many of their questions, even if I had been able to break the oath. Although I had done many things in the space of a couple of days, I was still a stranger to all that I was seeing.

I found myself resorting — as indeed Jase had done — to concealing what little I knew behind a barrier of crypticism and humour. It clearly disappointed the boys, and although their interest did not diminish the questions soon stopped.

I left the crèche as soon as I could, since Victoria was evidently no longer there.

Descending by way of the elevator, I returned to the dark area beneath the bulk of the city, and walked out between the tracks to the sunlight. Malchuskin was exhorting his unwilling labourers to unload the bogie of its rails and sleepers, and he hardly noticed that I had returned.

5

The days passed slowly, and I made no more return visits to the city.

I had learned the error of my ways by throwing myself too enthusiastically into the physical side of the track-work. I decided to follow Malchuskin’s lead, and confined myself in the main to supervising the hired labourers. Only occasionally would he and I pitch in and help. Even so, the work was arduous and long, and I felt my body responding to the new labours. I soon felt fitter than I had ever done in my life before, my skin was reddening under the rays of the sun, and soon the physical work became less of a strain.

My only real complaint was with the unvarying diet of synthesized food and Malchuskin’s inability to talk interestingly about the contribution we were making to the city’s security. We would work late into the evenings, and after a rough meal we would sleep.

Our work on the tracks to the south of the city was nearly complete. Our task was to remove all the track and erect four buffers at a uniform distance from the city. The track we removed was carried round to the north of the city where it was being re-laid.

One evening, Malchuskin said to me: “How long have you been out here?”

“I’m not sure.”

“In days.”

“Oh… seven.”

I had been trying to estimate it in terms of miles.

“In three days’ time you get some leave. You have two days inside the city, then you come back here for another mile.”

I asked him how he reckoned the passage of time in terms of both days and distance.

“It takes the city about ten days to cover a mile,” he said. “And in a year it will cover about thirty-six and a half.”

“But the city isn’t moving.”

“Not at the moment. It will be soon. Anyway, we don’t take account of how much the city has actually moved, so much as how much it should have moved. It’s based on the position of the optimum.”

I shook my head. “What does that mean?”

“The optimum is the ideal position for the city to be. To maintain that it would have to move approximately a tenth of a mile every day. That’s obviously out of the question, so we move the city towards optimum whenever we can.”

“Has the city ever reached optimum?”

“Not as long as I can remember.”

“Where’s the optimum now?”

“About three miles ahead of us. That’s about average. My father was out here on the tracks before me, and he told me once that they were then about ten miles from optimum. That’s the most I’ve ever heard.”

“But what would happen if we ever reached optimum?”

Malchuskin grinned. “We’d go on digging up old tracks.”

“Why?”

“Because the optimum’s always moving. But we’re not likely to reach optimum, and it doesn’t matter that much. Anywhere within a few miles of it is O.K. Put it this way… if we could get ahead of optimum for a bit, we could all have a good long rest.”

“Is that possible?”

“I guess so. Look at it this way. Where we are at the moment the ground is fairly high. To get up here we had to go through a long stretch of rising country. That was when my father was out here. It’s harder work to climb, so it took longer, and we got behind optimum. If we ever come to some lower country, then we can coast down the slope.”

“What are the prospects of that?”

“You’d better ask your guild that. Not my concern.”

“But what’s the countryside like here?”

“I’ll show you tomorrow.”

Though I hadn’t followed much of what Malchuskin said, at least one thing had become clear, and that was how time was measured. I was six hundred and fifty miles old; that did not mean that the city had moved that distance during my lifetime, but that the optimum had.

Whatever the optimum was.

The next day Malchuskin kept his promise. While the hired labourers took one of their customary rests in the deep shadow of the city, Malchuskin walked with me to a low rise of land some distance to the east of the city. Standing there we could see almost the whole of the immediate environment of the city.

It was at present standing in the centre of a broad valley, bounded north and south by two relatively high ridges of ground. To the south I could see clearly the traces of the track which had been taken up, marked by four parallel rows of scars where the sleepers and their foundations had been laid.

To the north of the city, the tracks ran smoothly up the slope of the ridge. There was not much activity here, though I could see one of the battery-driven bogies rolling slowly up the slope with its load of rail and sleepers and its attendant crew. On the crest of the ridge itself there was a considerable degree of activity, although from this distance it was not possible to determine exactly what was going on.

“Good country this,” Malchuskin said, but then immediately qualified it. “For a trackman, that is.”

“Why?”

“It’s smooth. We can take ridges and valleys in our stride. What gets me bothered is broken ground: rocks, rivers, or even forests. That’s one of the advantages of being high at the moment. This is all very old rock around here, and it’s been smoothed out by the elements. But don’t talk to me about rivers. Then I get agitated.”

“What’s wrong with rivers?”

“I said don’t talk about them!” He slapped me goodhumouredly on the shoulders, and we started our walk back towards the city. “Rivers have to be crossed. That means a bridge has to be built unless there’s one already there, which there never is. We have to wait around while the bridge is made ready, and that causes a delay. Usually, it’s the Track guild that gets the blame for delays. But that’s life. The trouble with rivers is that everyone’s got mixed feelings about them. The one thing the city’s permanently short of is water, and if we come across a river that solves one problem for the time being. But we still have to build a bridge, and that gets everyone nervous.”

The hired labourers did not look exactly pleased to see us when we returned, but Rafael moved them and work soon recommenced. The last of the tracks had now been taken up, and all we had left to do was build the last buffer. This was a steel erection, mounted above and across the last section of track, and utilizing three of the concrete sleeper foundations. Each of the four tracks had a buffer, and these were placed in such a way that if the city were to roll backwards it would be supported. The buffers were not in a line, owing to the irregular shape of the southern side of the city, but Malchuskin assured me that they were an adequate safeguard.

“I shouldn’t like them to have to be used,” he said, “but if the city did roll these should stop it. I think.”

With the completion of the buffer our work was finished.

“What now?” I said.

Malchuskin glanced up at the sun. “We ought to move house. I’d like to get my hut up across the ridge, and there are the dormitories for the workers. It’s getting late, though. I’m not sure that we could get it done before nightfall.”

“We could do it tomorrow.”

“That’s what I’m thinking. It’ll give the lazy bastards a few hours off. They’d like that.”

He spoke to Rafael, who consulted the other men. There was little doubt about the decision. Almost before Rafael had finished speaking to them, some of the men had started back towards their huts.

“Where are they going?”

“Back to their village, I expect,” said Malchuskin. “It’s just over there.” He pointed towards the south-east, over beyond the southern ridge of high ground. “They’ll be back, though. They don’t like the work but there’ll be pressure in the village, because we give them what they want.”

“What’s that?”

“The benefits of civilization,” he said, grinning cynically. “To wit, the synthetic food you’re always griping about.”

“They like that stuff?”

“No more than you do. But it’s better than an empty belly, which is what most of them had before we happened along here.”

“I don’t think I’d do all that work for that gruel. It’s tasteless, it’s got no substance, and—”

“How many meals a day did you eat in the city?”

“Three.”

“And how many were synthetic?”

“Only two,” I said.

“Well, it’s people like those poor sods who work their skins off just so you can eat one genuine meal a day. And from what I hear, what they do for me is the least of it.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ll find out.”

Later that evening, as we sat in his hut, Malchuskin spoke more on this subject. I discovered that he wasn’t as ill-informed as he tried to make out. He blamed it all on the guild system, as ever. It had been a long established practice that the ways of the city were passed down from one generation to the next not by tuition, but on heuristic principles. An apprentice would value the traditions of the guilds far more by understanding at first hand the facts of existence on which they were based than by being trained in a theoretical manner. In practice, it meant that I would have to discover for myself how the men came to work on the tracks, what other tasks they performed, and in fact all other matters concerning the continued existence of the city.

“When I was an apprentice,” Malchuskin said, “I built bridges and I dug up tracks. I worked with the Traction guild, and rode with men like your father. I know myself how the city continues to exist, and through that I know the value of my own job. I dig up tracks and re-lay them, not because I enjoy the work but because I know why it has to be done. I’ve been out with the Barter guild and seen how they get the local people to work for us, and so I understand the pressures that are on the men who work under me now. It’s all cryptic and obscure… that’s the way you see it now. But you’ll find out that it’s all to do with survival, and just how precarious that survival is.”

“I don’t mind working with you,” I said.

“I didn’t mean that. You’ve worked O.K. with me. All I’m saying is that all the things you’ve probably wondered about — the oath, for instance — have a purpose, and by God it’s a sensible purpose!”

“So the men will be back in the morning.”

“Probably. And they’ll complain, and they’ll slacken off as soon as you or I turn our backs… but even that’s in the nature of things. Sometimes, though, I wonder.

I waited for him to finish his sentence, but he said nothing more. It was an uncharacteristic sentiment, for Malchuskin did not seem to me to be in any way a pensive man. As we sat together he fell into a long silence, broken only when I got up to go outside to use the latrine. Then he yawned and stretched, and kidded me about my weak bladder.

Rafael returned in the morning with most of the men who had been with us before. A few were missing, though the numbers had been brought up to strength by replacements. Malchuskin greeted them without apparent surprise, and at once began supervising the demolition of the three temporary buildings.

First, all the contents were moved out, and placed in a large pile to one side. Then the buildings themselves were dismantled; not as difficult a task as I’d imagined, as they had evidently been designed to be taken down and put up again easily. Each of the walls was joined to the next by a series of bolts. The floors broke down into a series of flat wooden slats, and the roofs were similarly bolted into place. Fittings such as doors and windows were part of the frames in which they sat. It took only an hour to demolish each cabin, and by midday everything was done. Well before then Malchuskin had gone off by himself, returning half an hour later in a battery-powered truck. We took a short break and ate a meal, then loaded the truck with as much of the material as it would hold and set off towards the ridge, Malchuskin driving. Rafael and a few of the workers clung to the sides of the truck.

It was some way to the ridge. Malchuskin steered a course that brought us diagonally towards the nearest part of the track, and we drove the rest of the way towards the ridge alongside it. There was a shallow dip in the breast of the ridge, and it was through this that the four pairs of rails had been laid. There were many men working on this part of the track: some hacking manually at the ground to each side of the track — presumably to widen it sufficiently to take the bulk of the city as it passed through — and others toiled with mechanical drills, trying to erect five metal frames, each bearing a large wheel. Only one had been so far securely laid, and it stood between the two inner tracks, a gaunt, geometrical design with no apparent function.

As we passed through the dip Malchuskin slowed the truck, looking with interest at how the work was proceeding. He waved to one of the guildsmen supervising the work, then accelerated again as we passed over the summit of the ridge. From here there was a shallow downhill slope towards a broad plain. To east and west, and on the far side of the plain, I could see hills which were much higher.

To my surprise the tracks ended only a short distance beyond the ridge. The left outer track had been built for about a mile, but the other three were barely a hundred yards long. There were two teams already at work on these tracks, but it was immediately clear that progress was slow.

Malchuskin stared round. On our side of the tracks — that is, on the western side — there was a small cluster of huts, presumably the living quarters for the track-teams already here. He headed the truck in that direction, but drove some way past before stopping.

“This’ll do,” he said. “We want the buildings up by nightfall.”

I said: “Why don’t we put them up by the others?”

“It’s my policy not to. I have trouble enough with these men as it is. If they have too much contact with the others they drink more and work less. We can’t stop them mixing together when they’re not working, but there’s no point in clustering them together.”

“But surely they have a right to do what they want?”

“They’re being bought for their labour. That’s all.”

He clambered down from the cabin of the truck, and began to shout at Rafael to start the work on the huts.

The truck was soon unloaded, and leaving me in charge of the re-building, Malchuskin drove the truck back over the ridge to collect the rest of the men and the materials.

As nightfall approached, the re-building was nearly completed. My last task of the day was to return the truck to the city and connect it to one of the battery-recharging points. I drove off, content to be alone again for a while.

As I drove over the ridge, the work on the raised wheels had finished for the day and the site was abandoned but for two militiamen standing guard, their crossbows slung over their shoulders. They paid no attention to me. Leaving them behind, I drove down the other side towards the city. I was surprised to see how few lights were showing and how, with the approach of night, the daytime activities ceased.

Where Malchuskin had told me I would find recharging points I discovered that other vehicles were already connected up, and no other places were available. I guessed that this was the last truck to be returned that evening, and that I would have to look around for more points. In the end, I found a spare point on the south side of the city.

It was now dark, and after I had attended to the truck I was faced with the long walk back alone. I was tempted not to return, but to stay the night inside the city. After all, it would take only a few minutes to get back to my cabin in the crèche… but then I thought of Malchuskin and the reaction I would get from him in the morning.

Reluctantly, I walked around the perimeter of the city, found the tracks leading northwards and followed them up to the ridge. Being alone on the plain at night was a rather disconcerting experience. It was already cold and a strong breeze was blowing from the east, chilling me through my thin uniform. Ahead of me I could see the dark bulk of the ridge, set against the dull radiance of the clouded sky. In the dip, the angular shapes of the wheel structures stood on the skyline, and pacing to and fro in their lonely vigil were the two militiamen. As I walked up to them I was challenged.

“Stop right there!” Both men had come to a halt, and although I could not see for certain I had an instinct that the crossbows were pointing in my direction. “Identify yourself.”

“Apprentice Helward Mann.”

“What are you doing outside the city?”

“I’m working with Track Malchuskin. I passed you just now in the truck.”

“Oh yes. Come forward.”

I walked up to them.

“I don’t know you,” one of them said. “Have you just started?”

“Yes… about a mile ago.”

“Which guild are you in?”

“The Futures.”

The one who had spoken laughed. “Rather you than me.”

“Why?”

“I like a long life.”

“He’s young though,” the other said.

“What are you talking about?” I said.

“Been up future yet?”

“No.”

“Been down past yet?”

“No. I only started a few days ago.”

A thought occurred to me. Although I could not see their faces in the dark I could tell by the sound of their voices that they were not much older than me. Perhaps seven hundred miles, not much more. But if that was so, then surely I should know them for they would have been in the crèche with me?

“What’s your name?” I said to one of them.

“Conwell Sturner. Crossbowman Sturner to you.”

“Were you in the crèche?”

“Yes. Don’t remember you, though. But then you’re just a kid.”

“I’ve just left the crèche. You weren’t there.”

They both laughed again, and I felt my temper weakening. “We’ve been down past, son.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means we’re men.”

“You ought to be in bed, son. It’s dangerous out here at night.”

“There’s no one around,” I said.

“Not now. But while the softies in the city get their sleep, we save ‘em from the tooks.”

“What are they?”

“The tooks? The dagos. The local thugs who jump out of shadows on young apprentices.”

I moved past them. I wished I’d gone into the city and hadn’t come this way. Nevertheless my curiosity was aroused.

“Really… what do you mean?” I said.

“There’s tooks out there who don’t like the city. If we didn’t watch them, they’d damage the track. See these pulleys? They’d have them down if we weren’t here.”

“But it was the… tooks who helped put them up.”

“Those as work for us. But there’s a lot as doesn’t.”

“Get to bed, son. Leave the tooks to us.”

“Just the two of you?”

“Aye… just us, and a dozen more all over the ridge. You hurry on down to bed, son, and watch you don’t get a quarrel between the eyes.”

I turned my back on them and walked away. I was seething with anger, and had I stayed a moment longer I felt sure I would have gone for one or the other of them. I hated their manly patronization of me, and yet I knew I had needled them. Two young men armed with crossbows would be no defence against a determined attack, and they knew it too, but it was important for their self-esteem not to let me work it out for myself.

When I judged I was out of their earshot I broke into a run, and almost at once stumbled over a sleeper. I moved away from the track and ran on. Malchuskin was waiting in the hut, and together we ate another meal of the synthetic food.

6

After two more days’ work with Malchuskin the time came for my period of leave. In those two days Malchuskin spurred the labourers on to more work than I had ever seen them do, and we made good progress. Although track-laying was harder work than digging up old track, there was the subtle benefit of seeing the results, in the shape of an ever-extending section of track. The extra work took the form of having to dig the foundationpits for the concrete blocks before actually laying the sleepers and rail. As there were now three track-crews working to the north of the city, and each of the tracks was approximately the same length, there was the additional stimulus of competition amongst the crews. I was surprised to see how the men responded to this competition, and as the work proceeded there was a certain amount of good-natured banter among them as they toiled.

“Two days,” Malchuskin said, just before I left for the city. “Don’t take any longer. They’ll be winching soon, and we need every man available.”

“Am I to come back to you?”

“It’s up to your guild… but yes. The next two miles will be with me. After that you transfer to another guild, and do three miles with them.”

“Who will it be?” I said.

“I don’t know. Your guild will decide that.”

“O.K.”

As we finished work late on the last night I slept in the hut. There was another reason too: I had no wish to walk back to the city after dark and pass through the gap guarded by the militiamen. During the day there was little or no sign of the Militia, but after my first experience of them Malchuskin had told me that a guard was mounted every night, and during the period immediately prior to a winching operation the track was the most heavily guarded area.

The next morning I walked back along the track to the city.

It was not difficult to locate Victoria now that I was authorized to be in the city. Before, I had been hesitant in looking for her, for at the back of my mind there had been the thought that I should have been getting back to Malchuskin as soon as I could. Now I had two whole days of leave, and was relieved of the sense of evading what my duties should have been.

Even so, I still had no way of knowing how to find her… and so had to resort to the expedient of asking. After a few misroutings I was directed to a room on the fourth level. Here, Victoria and several other young people were working under the supervision of one of the women administrators. As soon as Victoria saw me standing at the door she spoke to the administrator, then came over to me. We went out into the corridor.

“Hello, Helward,” she said, shutting the door behind her.

“Hello. Look… if you’re working I can see you later.”

“It’s all right. You’re on leave, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’m on leave too. Come on.”

She led the way down the corridor, turned off into a side passage, and then went down a short flight of steps. At the bottom was another corridor, lined on both sides by doors. She opened one of them and we went inside.

The room beyond was much larger than any private room I had so far seen inside the city. The largest single piece of furniture was a bed placed against one of the walls, but the room was also well and comfortably furnished with a quite surprising amount of floor space. Against one wall was a wash-basin and a small cooker. There was a table and two chairs, a cupboard to keep clothes in, and two easy chairs. Most unexpected of all, there was a window.

I went over to it immediately and looked out. There was an area of open space beyond, bounded on the opposite side by another wall with many windows. The space extended to left and right, but the window was small and I could not see what lay at the sides of the space.

“Like it?” Victoria said.

“It’s so large! Is it all yours?”

“In a sense. Ours, once we’re married.”

“Oh yes. Someone said I’d have quarters to myself.”

“This is probably what they meant,” said Victoria. “Where are you living at the moment?”

“I’m still in the crèche. But I haven’t stayed there since the ceremony.”

“Are you outside already?”

“I…”

I wasn’t sure what to say. Outside? What could I tell Victoria, bound as I was to the oath?

“I know you go outside the city,” said Victoria. “It’s not such a secret.”

“What else do you know?”

“Several things. But look, I’ve hardly spoken to you! Can I make you some tea?”

“Synthetic?” I immediately regretted the question; I did not wish to seem ungracious.

“I’m afraid so. But I’m going to be working with the synthetics team soon, so I might be able to find some way of improving it.”

The atmosphere relaxed slowly. For the first hour or two we addressed each other coolly and almost formally, politely curious about one another, but soon we were able to take more things for granted; Victoria and I were not such strangers, I realized.

The subject of conversation turned to our life in the crèche, and this immediately brought a new doubt to the surface. Until I had actually left the city, I had had no clear idea of what I would find. The teaching in the crèche had seemed to me — and to most of the others — dry, abstract, and irrelevant. There were few printed books, and most of those were fictional works dealing with life on Earth planet, so the teachers had relied mainly on texts written by themselves. We knew, or thought we knew, much about everyday life on Earth planet, but we were told that this was not what we would find on this world. A child’s natural curiosity immediately demanded to know the alternative, but on this the teachers had kept their silence. So there was always this frustrating gap in our knowledge: what by reading we learned of life on a world which was not this one, and what by surmise we were left to imagine of the ways of the city.

This situation led to much discontent, evidenced by a surplus of unspent physical energy. But where, in the crèche, was the outlet? Only the corridors and the gymnasium gave space enough to move, and then with severe limitations. The release was manifest in unrest: in the younger children emotional outbursts and disobedience, in older children fighting and passionate devotion to what few sports could be played in the tiny gymnasium… and in those in their last few miles before coming of age a premature carnal awareness.

There were token efforts at control by the crèche administrators, but perhaps they understood these activities for what they were. In any event, I had grown up in the crèche, and I no less than anyone else had taken part in these occasional outbursts. In the last twenty miles or so before coming of age I had indulged myself in sexual relationships with some of the girls — Victoria not among them — and it had not seemed to matter. Now she and I were to marry, and suddenly what had gone before did matter.

Perversely, the more we talked the more I found that I was wishing we could lay this ghost from the past. I wondered if I should detail my various experiences, explain myself. Victoria, however, seemed to be in control of the conversation, directing it along channels of mutual acceptability. Perhaps she too had her ghosts. She told me something of life in the city, and I was of course interested to hear this.

She said that as a woman she was not automatically granted a responsible position, and only her engagement to me had made her present work possible. Had she become engaged to a non-guildsman, she would have been expected to produce children as often as possible, and spend her time on routine domestic chores in the kitchens, or making clothes or whatever other menial tasks came along. Instead, she was now able to have some control over her future, and could probably rise to the position of a senior administrator. She was currently involved in a training procedure similar in structure to mine. The only difference was that there appeared to be less emphasis on experience, and more on theoretical education. Consequently, she had already learnt far more about the city and how it was run internally than I had.

I didn’t feel free to speak of my work outside, so I listened to what she said with a great deal of interest.

She said that she had been told that there were two great shortages in the city: one was water — which I knew from what Malchuskin had said — and the other was population.

“But there are plenty of people in the city,” I said.

“Yes… but the rate of live births has always been low, and it’s getting worse. What makes this even more serious is that there is a predominance in the live births of male babies. No one is really sure why.”

“It’s the synthetic food,” I said sardonically.

“It might be.” She had missed the point. “Until I left the crèche, I had only vague notions of what the rest of the city might be like… but I had always assumed that everyone in it had been born here.”

“Isn’t that so?”

“No. There are a lot of women brought into the city in an effort to boost the population. Or, more specifically, in the hope they’ll produce female babies.”

I said: “My mother came from outside the city.”

“Did she?” For the first time since we had met Victoria looked ill at ease. “I didn’t know that.”

“I thought it would be obvious.”

“I suppose it was, but somehow I never thought.

“It doesn’t matter,” I said.

Abruptly, Victoria fell silent. It really wasn’t of much concern to me, and I regretted having mentioned it.

“Tell me more about this,” I said.

“No… there’s not much more. What about you? What’s your guild like?”

“It’s O.K.,” I said.

Quite apart from the fact that the oath forbade me to speak about it, I felt no inclination to talk. In that abrupt silence from Victoria I had gained a distinct impression that there had been more to say, but that some discretion prevented her from doing so. For the whole of my life — or at least as much of it as I could remember — the absence of my mother had been treated as a matter of fact. My father, whenever we spoke of it, talked factually about it, and there seemed to be no stigma attached. Indeed, many of the boys in the crèche had been in the same situation as I and, what is more, most of the girls. Until the subject had provoked this reaction in Victoria, I’d never thought about it.

“You’re something of an oddity,” I said, hoping to get her to return to the subject by approaching it from a different direction. “Your mother is still in the city.”

“Yes,” she said.

So that was to be the end of it. I decided to let it drop. In any event, I hadn’t especially wanted to discuss matters outside ourselves. I had come to the city to spend my time getting to know Victoria, not to talk about genealogy.

But the feeling persisted; the conversation had died.

“What’s out there?” I said, indicating the window. “Can we go there?”

“If you like. I’ll show you.”

I followed her out of the room, and along the corridor to where a door led to the outside. There was not much to see: the open space was no more than an alley running between the two parts of the residential block. At one end of it there was a raised section, reached by a wooden staircase. We walked first to the opposite end, where another door led back into the city; returning, we climbed the steps and came out on a small platform, where several wooden seats were placed, and where there was room to move with some freedom. On two sides the platform was bounded by higher walls, presumably containing other parts of the city’s interior, and the side by which access was gained looked down over the roofs of the residential blocks and along the alleyway. But on the fourth side the view was uninterrupted, and it was possible to see out into the surrounding countryside. This was a revelation to me: the terms of the oath had implied that no one but guildsmen should ever see outside the city.

“What do you think?” Victoria said, sitting down on one of the seats which looked out across the view.

I sat next to her. “I like it.”

“Have you been out there?”

“Yes.” It was difficult; already I was finding myself in conflict with the terms of the oath. How could I talk to Victoria about my work without breaking what I had sworn?

“We’re not allowed tip here very often. It’s locked at night, and only open at some hours of the day. Sometimes it’s locked for several days on end.”

“Do you know why?”

“Do you?” she said.

“It’s probably… something to do with the work out there.”

“Which you’re not going to talk about.”

“No,” I said.

“Why not?”

“I can’t.”

She glanced at me. “You’re very tanned. Do you work in the sun?”

“Some of the time.”

“This place is locked when the sun’s overhead. All I’ve ever seen of it is when the rays touch the higher parts of the buildings.”

“There’s nothing to see,” I said. “It’s very bright, and you can’t stare at it.”

“I’d like to find that out for myself.”

I said: “What are you doing at the moment? In your work, I mean?”

“Nutrition.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s determining how to work out a balanced diet. We have to make sure that the synthetic food contains enough protein, and that people eat the right amount of vitamins.” She paused, her voice having reflected a general lack of interest in the subject. “Sunlight contains vitamins, you know.”

“Does it?”

“Vitamin D. It’s produced in the body by the action of sunlight on the skin. That’s worth knowing if you never see the sun.”

“But it can be synthesized,” I said.

“Yes… and it is. Shall we go back to the room and have some more tea?”

I said nothing to this. I don’t know what I had expected by seeing Victoria, but I had not anticipated this. Illusions of some romantic ideal had tempted me during my days working with Malchuskin, and from time to time these had been tempered by a feeling that perhaps she and I might have to adapt to each other; in any event it had never occurred to me that there would be such an undercurrent of resentment. I had seen us working together towards realizing the intimate relationship formed for us by our parents, and somehow shaping it in such a way that it would become a realistic and perhaps even loving relationship. What I had not foreseen was that Victoria had seen us both in larger terms: that I would be forever enjoying the advantages of a way of life forbidden to her.

We stayed on the platform. Victoria’s remark about returning to the room had been ironic, and I was sensitive enough to identify it. Anyhow, I felt that for different reasons we would both prefer to stay on the platform; I did, because my work outside had given me a taste for fresh air, and by contrast I now found the interior of the city buildings claustrophobic, and I supposed Victoria did, for this platform was as near as she could come to leaving the city. Even so, the undulating countryside to the east of the city served as a reminder of the newly discovered difference that separated us.

“You could apply to transfer to a guild,” I said in a moment, “I’m sure—”

“I’m the wrong sex,” she said abruptly. “It’s men only, or didn’t you realize that?”

“No…”

“It hasn’t taken me long to work a few things out,” she went on, speaking quickly and barely suppressing her bitterness. “I’d seen it all my life and never recognized it: my father always away from the city, my mother working in her job, organizing all those things we took for granted, like food and heating and disposal of sewage. Now I have recognized it. Women are too valuable to risk outside. They’re needed here in the city because they breed, and they can be made to breed again and again. If they’re not lucky enough to be born in the city, they can be brought from outside and sent away when they’ve served their purpose.” The sensitive subject again, but this time she didn’t falter. “I know that the work outside the city has to be done, and whatever it is it’s done at risk… but I’ve been given no option. Just because I’m a woman I have no choice but to be kept inside this damned place and learn fascinating things about food production, and whenever I can I have to give birth.”

I said: “Do you not want to marry me?”

“There’s no alternative.”

“Thanks.”

She stood up, walked angrily towards the steps. I followed her down, and walked behind her as she returned to her room. I waited in the doorway, watching her as she stood with her back to me, looking out of the window at the narrow alleyway between the buildings.

“Do you want me to go?” I said.

“No… come in and close the door.”

She didn’t move as I did this.

“I’ll make some more tea,” she said.

“O.K.”

The water in the pan was still warm, and it took only a minute or so to bring it back to boiling.

“We don’t have to marry,” I said.

“If it’s not you it’d be someone else.” She turned and sat beside me, taking her cup of the synthetic brew. “I’ve nothing against you, Helward. You should know that. Whether we like it or not, my life and yours is dominated by the guild system. We can’t do anything about that.”

“Why not? Systems can be changed.”

“Not this one! It’s too firmly entrenched. The guilds have the city sewn up, for reasons I don’t suppose I’ll ever know. Only the guilds can change the system, and they never will.”

“You sound very sure.”

“I am,” she said. “And for the good reason that the system which runs my life is itself dominated by what goes on outside the city. As I can never take part in that I can never do anything to determine my own life.”

“But you could… through me.”

“Even you won’t talk about it.”

“I can’t,” I said.

“Why not?”

“I can’t even tell you that.”

“Guild secrecy.”

“If you like,” I said.

“And even as you’re sitting here now, you’re subscribing to it.”

“I have to,” I said simply. “I was made to swear—”

Then I remembered: the oath itself was one of the terms of the oath. I had breached it, and so easily and naturally that it had been done before I’d thought.

To my surprise, Victoria reacted not at all.

“So the guild system is ratified,” she said. “It makes sense.”

I finished my tea. “I think I’d better go.”

“Are you angry with me?” she said.

“No. It’s just—”

“Don’t go. I’m sorry I lost my temper with you… it’s not your fault. Something you said just now: through you I could determine my own life. What did you mean?”

“I’m not sure. I think I nieant that as the wife of a guildsman, which I’ll be one day, you’d have more of a chance of.

“Of what?”

“Well… seeing through me whatever sense there is in the system.”

“And you’re sworn not to tell me.”

“I… yes.”

“So first-order guildsmen have it all worked out. The system demands secrecy.”

She leaned back and closed her eyes.

I was very confused, and angry with myself. I had been an apprentice for ten days, and already I was technically under sentence of death. It was too bizarre to take seriously, but my memory of the oath was that the threat had been a convincing one at the time. The confusion arose because unwittingly Victoria had involved the tentative emotional commitment we had made to each other. I could see the conflict, but could do nothing about it. I knew from my own life inside the crèche the subtle frustrations that arose through being allowed no access to the other parts of the city; if that were extended to a larger scale — allowed a small part in the running of the city, but given a point beyond which no actions were possible — that frustration would continue. But surely this was no new problem in the city? Victoria and I were not the first to be married in this way. Before us there must have been others who had encountered the same rift. Had they simply taken the system as it appeared to them?

Victoria didn’t move as I left the room and went towards the crèche.

Away from her, away from the inescapable syndrome of reaction and counter-reaction by talking to her, the concerns she expressed faded and I became more worried about my own situation. If the oath were to be taken at all seriously I could be killed if word were to reach one of the guildsmen. Could breaching the oath be that dreadful a thing to do?

Would Victoria tell anyone else what I had said? On thinking this my first impulse was to go back to see her, and plead for her silence… but that would have made both the breach and her own resentment more serious.

I wasted the rest of the day, lying on my bunk and fretting about the entire situation. Later late in one of the dining-rooms of the city, and was thankful not to see Victoria.

In the middle of the night, Victoria came to my cabin. My first awareness was of the sound of the door closing, and as I opened my eyes I saw her as a tall shape standing beside the bed.

“Wha — ?”

“Ssh. It’s me.”

“What do you want?” I reached out to find the light-switch, but her hand came across and took my wrist.

“Don’t turn on the light.”

She sat down on the edge of the bed, and I sat up.

“I’m sorry, Helward. That’s all I’ve come to say.”

“O.K.”

She laughed. “You’re still asleep, aren’t you?”

“Not sure. Might be.”

She leaned forward, and I felt her hands press lightly against my chest and then move up until they were behind my neck. She kissed me.

“Don’t say anything,” she said. “I’m just very sorry.”

We kissed again, and her hands moved until her arms were tight around me.

“You wear a night-shirt in bed.”

“What else?”

“Take it off.”

She stood up suddenly, and I heard her undoing the coat she was wearing. When she sat down again, much closer, she was naked. I fumbled with my night-shirt, getting it caught as it came over my head. Victoria pulled back the covers, and squeezed in beside me.

“You came down here like that?” I said.

“There’s no one about.” Her face was very close to mine. We kissed again, and as I pulled away my head banged against the cabin wall. Victoria cuddled up close to me, pressing her body against mine. Suddenly she laughed loudly.

“Christ! Shut up!”

“What’s up?” she said.

“Someone will hear.”

“They’re all asleep.”

“They won’t be if you keep laughing.”

“I said don’t talk.” She kissed me again.

In spite of the fact that my body was already responding eagerly to her, I was stricken with alarm. We were making too much noise. The walls in the crèche were thin, and I knew from long experience that sounds transmitted readily. With her laughter and our voices, the fact that of necessity we were squeezed in the bunk against the wall, I was certain we’d awaken the whole crèche. I pushed her away and told her this.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said.

“It does.”

I flung back the bed-covers, and scrambled over her. I turned on the light. Victoria shielded her eyes against the glare, and I tossed her coat to her.

“Come on… we’ll go to your room.”

“No.”

“Yes.” I was pulling on my uniform.

“Don’t put that on,” she said. “It smells.”

“Does it?”

“Abominably.”

She sat up and as she did so I stared at her, admiring the neatness of her naked body. She pulled the coat around her shoulders, then got out of the bed.

“O.K.,” she said. “But let’s be quick.”

We left my cabin and let ourselves out of the crèche. We hurried along the corridors. As Victoria had said, this late at night there was no one about, and the corridor lights were dimmed. In a few minutes we had reached her room. I closed the door, and bolted it. Victoria sat down on the bed, holding her coat around her.

I took off my uniform and climbed into the bed.

“Come on, Victoria.”

“I don’t feel like it now.”

“Oh, Christ… why not?”

“We should have stayed where we were,” she said.

“Do you want to go back?”

“Of course not.”

“Get in with me,” I said. “Don’t sit there.”

“O.K.”

She undid her coat and dropped it on the floor, then climbed in beside me. We put our arms around each other, and kissed for a moment, but I knew what she meant. The desire had left me as rapidly as it had come. After a while we just lay there in silence. The sensation of being in bed with her was pleasant, but although I was aware of the sensuality of it nothing happened.

Eventually, I said: “Why did you come to see me?”

“I told you.”

“Was that all… that you were sorry?”

“I think so.”

“I nearly came to see you,” I said. “I’ve done something I shouldn’t. I’m frightened.”

“What was it?”

“I told you… I told you I had been made to swear something. You were right, the guilds impose secrecy on their members. When I became an apprentice I had to take an oath, and part of it was that I had to swear I would not reveal the existence of the oath. I broke it by telling you.”

“Does it matter?”

“The penalty is death.”

“But why should they ever find out?”

“If…”

Victoria said: “If I say anything, you mean. Why should I?”

“I’m not sure. But the way you were talking today, the resentment at not being allowed to lead your own life… I felt sure you would use it against me.”

“Until just now it meant nothing to me. I wouldn’t use it. Anyway, why should a wife betray her husband?”

“You still want to marry me?”

“Yes.”

“Even though it was arranged for us?”

“It’s a good arrangement,” she said, and held me tighter for a few moments. “Don’t you feel the same?”

“Yes.”

A few minutes later, Victoria said: “Will you tell me what goes on outside the city?”

“I can’t.”

“Because of the oath?”

“Yes.”

“But you’re already in breach of it. What could matter now?”

“There’s nothing to tell anyway,” I said. “I’ve spent ten days doing a lot of physical work, and I’m not sure why.”

“What kind of physical work?”

“Victoria… don’t question me about it.”

“Well tell me about the sun. Why is no one in the city allowed to see it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is there something wrong with it?”

“I don’t think so…”

Victoria was asking me questions I should have asked myself, but hadn’t. In the welter of new experiences, there had been hardly time to register the meaning of anything I’d seen, let alone query it. Confronted with these questions — quite aside from whether or not I should answer them — I found myself demanding the answers. Was there indeed something wrong with the sun that could endanger the city? Should this be kept secret if so? But I had seen the sun, and…

“There’s nothing wrong with it,” I said. “But it doesn’t look the same shape as I’d thought.”

“It’s a sphere.”

“No it’s not. Or at least it doesn’t look like one.”

“Well?”

“I shouldn’t tell you, I’m sure.”

“You can’t leave it like that,” she said.

“I don’t think it’s important.”

“I do.”

“O.K.” I had already said too much, but what could I do? “You can’t see it properly during the day, because it’s so bright. But at sunrise or sunset you can see it for a few minutes. I think it’s disk-shaped. But it’s more than that, and I don’t know the words to describe it. In the centre of the disk, top and bottom, there’s a kind of shaft.”

“Part of the sun?”

“Yes. A bit like a spinning-top. But it’s difficult to see clearly because it’s so bright even at those times. The other night, I was outside and the sky was clear. There’s a moon, and that’s the same shape. But I couldn’t see that clearly either, because it was in phase.”

“Are you sure of this?”

“It’s what I’ve seen.”

“But it’s not what we we were taught.”

“I know,” I said. “But that’s how it is.”

I said no more. Victoria asked more questions but I pushed them aside, pleading that I did not know the answers. She tried to draw me further on the work I was doing, but somehow I managed to keep my silence. Instead, I asked her questions about herself and soon we had moved away from what was for me a dangerous subject. It could not be buried forever, but I needed time to think. Some time later we made love, and shortly afterwards we fell asleep.

In the morning Victoria made some breakfast, then left me sitting naked in her room while she took my uniform to be laundered. While she was away I washed and shaved, then lay on the bed until she returned.

I put my uniform on again: it felt crisp and fresh, not at all like the rather stiff and odorous second skin it had become as a result of my labours outside.

We spent the rest of the day together, and Victoria took me to show me around the interior of the city. It was far more complex than I had ever realized. Most of what I had seen until then was the residential and administrative section, but there was more to it than this. At first I wondered how I should ever find my way around until Victoria pointed out that in several places plans of the lay-out had been attached to the walls.

I noted that the plans had been altered many times, and one in particular caught my attention. We were in one of the lower levels, and beside a recently drawn revised plan was a much older one, preserved behind a sheet of transparent plastic. I looked at this with great interest, noting that its directions were printed in several languages. Of these I could recognize only the French language in addition to English.

“What are these others?” I asked her.

“That’s German, and the others are Russian and Italian. And this—” she pointed to an ornate, ideographic script “—is Chinese.”

I looked more closely at the plan, comparing it with the recent one next to it. The similarity could be seen, but it was clear that much alteration work had been carried out inside the city between the compiling of the two plans.

“Why were there so many languages?”

“We’re descended from a group of mixed nationals. I believe English has been the standard language for many thousands of miles, but that’s not always been the case. My own family is descended from the French.”

“Oh yes,” I said.

On this same level, Victoria showed me the synthetics plant. It was here that the protein-substitutes and other organic surrogates were synthesized from timber and vegetable products. The smell in here was very strong, and I noticed that all the people who worked here had to wear masks over their faces. Victoria and I passed through quickly into the next area where research was carried out to improve texture and flavour. It was here, Victoria told me, she would soon be working.

Later, Victoria expressed more of her frustrations at her life, both present and future. More prepared for this than previously I was able to reassure her. I told her to look to her own mother for example, as she led a fulfilled and useful life. I promised her — under persuasion — that I would tell her more of my own life, and I said that I would do what I could, when I became a full guildsman, to make the system more open, more liberal. It seemed to quiet her a little, and together we passed a relaxed evening and night.

7

Victoria and I agreed that we should marry as soon as possible. She told me that during the next mile she would find out what formalities we had to undergo, and that if it were possible we would marry during my next period of leave, or during the one after. In the meantime, I had to return to my duties outside.

As soon as I came out from underneath the city it was obvious that much progress had been made. The immediate environment of the city had been cleared of most of the impedimenta of the work. There was none of the temporary buildings in sight, and no battery-operated vehicles stood against the recharging points, all, presumably, in use beyond the ridge. A more fundamental difference was that leading out from the northern edge of the city were five cables, which lay on the ground beside the tracks and disappeared from view over the hump of the ridge. On guard beside the track, pacing up and down, were several militiamen.

Suspecting that Malchuskin would be busy I walked quickly towards the ridge. When I reached the summit my suspicions were confirmed, for in the distance, where the tracks ended, there was a flurry of activity concentrated around the right inner track. Beyond this, more crews were working on some metal structures, but from this distance it was impossible to determine their function. I hurried on down.

The walk took me longer than I had anticipated as the longest section of track was now more than a mile and a half in length. Already the sun was high, and by the time I found Malchuskin and his crew I was hot from the walk.

Malchuskin barely acknowledged me, and I took off the jacket of my uniform and joined in with the work.

The crews were labouring to get this section of track extended to a length equal to the others, but the complication was that a patch of ground with a rock-hard subsoil had been encountered. Although this meant that the concrete foundations were not necessary, the pits for the sleepers could only be dug with the greatest difficulty.

I found a pickaxe on a near-by truck, and started work. Soon, the more sophisticated problems I had encountered inside the city seemed very remote indeed.

In the periods of rest I gathered from Malchuskin that apart from this section of track all was nearly ready for the winching operation. The cables had been extended, and the stays were dug. He took me out to the stay-emplacements and showed me how the steel girders were buried deep into the ground to provide a sufficiently strong anchor for the cables. Three of the stays were completed and the cables were connected. One more stay was in the process of completion, and the fifth was being erected now.

There was a general air of anxiety amongst the guildsmen working on the site, and I asked Malchuskin the cause of this.

“It’s time,” he said. “It’s taken us twenty-three days since the last winching to lay the tracks this far. On present estimates we’ll be able to winch the city tomorrow if nothing else goes wrong. That’s twenty-four days. Right? The most we can winch the city this time is just under two miles… but in the time we’ve taken to do that the optimum has moved forward two and a half miles. So even when we’ve done this we’ll still be half a mile further behind optimum than we were at the last winching.

“Can we make that up?”

“On the next winching, perhaps. I was talking to some of the Traction men last night… they reckon we can do a short winch next time, and then two long ones. They’re worried about those hills.” He waved vaguely in a northern direction.

“Can’t we go round them?” I said, seeing that a long way to the north-east the hills appeared to be slightly lower.

“We could… but the shortest route towards optimum is due north. Any angular deflection away from that just adds a greater distance to be covered.”

I didn’t fully understand everything he told me, but the sense of urgency came across clearly.

“There’s one good thing,” Malchuskin went on. “We’re dropping this crowd of tooks after this. The Future guild has found a bigger settlement somewhere up north, and they’re desperate for work. That’s how I like them. The hungrier they are, the harder they’ll work… for a time, at least.”

The work continued. That evening we didn’t finish until after sunset, Malchuskin and the other Track guildsmen driving on the labourers with bigger and better curses. I had no time to react one way or another, for the guildsmen themselves, and I, worked no less hard. By the time we returned to the hut for the night I was exhausted.

In the morning, Malchuskin left the hut early, instructing me to bring Rafael and the labourers across to the site as soon as possible. When I arrived he and three other Track guildsmen were in argument with the guildsmen preparing the cables. I set Rafael and the men to work on the track, but I was curious about the dispute. When Malchuskin eventually came over to us he said nothing about it but threw himself into the work, shouting angrily at Rafael.

Some time later, when we took a short break, I asked him about the argument.

“It’s the Traction men,” he said. “They want to start winching now, before the track’s finished.”

“Can they do that?”

“Yes… they say that it’ll take some time to get the city up to the ridge, and we could finish off here while that’s going on. We won’t allow it.”

“Why not? It sounds reasonable.”

“Because it’d mean working under the cables. There’s a lot of strain on the cables, particularly when the city’s being winched up a slope, like the one before the ridge. You’ve never seen a cable break, have you?” It was a rhetorical question; I didn’t know before this that cables were even used. “You’d be cut in half before you heard the bang,” Malchuskin finished sourly.

“So what was agreed?”

“We’ve got an hour to finish, then they start winching anyway.”

There were still three sections of rail to lay. We gave the men a few more minutes’ rest and then the work started again. As there were now four guildsmen and their teams concentrated in one area, we moved quickly, but even so it took most of the hour to complete the track.

With some satisfaction, Malchuskin signalled to the Traction men that we were ready. We collected our tools, and carried them to one side.

“What now?” I said to Malchuskin.

“We wait. I’m going back to the city for a rest. Tomorrow we start again.”

“What shall I do?”

“I’d watch if I were you. You’ll find it interesting. Anyway, we ought to pay off these men. I’ll send a Barter guildsman out to you later today. Keep them here until he arrives. I’ll be back in the morning.”

“O.K.,” I said. “Anything else?”

“Not really. While the winching is taking place the Traction men are in charge out here, so if they tell you to jump, jump. They might need something done to the tracks, so you’d better be alert. But I think the tracks are O.K. They’ve been checked already.”

He walked away from me towards his hut. He looked very tired. The hired men went back to their own huts, and soon I was left to my own devices. Malchuskin’s remark about the danger of a breaking cable had alarmed me, so I sat down on the ground at what I considered was a safe distance from the site.

There was not much activity in the region of the stayemplacements. All five of the cables had been connected up, and now ran slackly from the stays across the ground parallel to the tracks. Two Traction guildsmen were by the emplacements, carrying out what I presumed was a final check on the connections.

From the region of the ridge a group of men appeared, and walked in two orderly files towards us. From this distance it was not possible to see who they were, but I noticed that one of their number left the file at approximately one hundred yard intervals, and took up a position at the side of the track. As the men approached I saw that they were militiamen, each equipped with a crossbow. By the time the group reached the stayemplacements only eight of them were left, and these took up a defensive formation around them. After a few minutes one of the militiamen walked over to me.

“Who are you?” he said.

“Apprentice Helward Mann.”

“What are you doing?”

“I’ve been told to watch the winching.”

“All right. Keep your distance. How many tooks are there here?”

“I’m not sure,” I said. “About sixty, I think.”

“They been working on the track?”

“Yes.”

He grinned. “Too bloody tired to do any harm. That’s O.K. Let me know if they cause any trouble.”

He wandered away and joined the other militiamen. What kind of trouble the labourers would cause wasn’t clear to me, but the attitude of the Militia towards them seemed to be curious. I could only presume that at some time in the past the tooks had caused some kind of damage to the tracks or the cables, but I couldn’t see any of the men with whom we’d been working presenting a threat to us.

The militiamen on guard beside the tracks seemed to me to be dangerously near the cables, but they showed no sign of any awareness of this. Patiently, they marched to and fro, pacing their allotted sections of the track.

I noticed that the two Traction men at the emplacements had taken up a position behind metal shields, just beyond the stays. One of them had a large red flag, and was looking through binoculars towards the ridge. There, beside the five wheelpulleys, I could just make out another man. As all attention seemed to be on this man I watched him curiously. He had his back towards us as far as I could make out at this distance.

Suddenly, he turned and swung his flag to attract the attention of the two men at the stays. He waved it in a wide semicircle below his waist, to and fro. Immediately, the man at the stays with the flag came out from behind his shield and confirmed the signal by repeating the movement with his own flag.

A few moments later I noticed that the cables were sliding slowly across the ground towards the city. On the ridge I could see the wheel-pulleys turning as the slack was taken up. One by one, the cables stopped moving although the major part of their length still ran across the ground. I presumed this was the weight of the cables themselves, for in the region of the stays and the pulleys. the cables were well clear of the ground.

“Give them the clear!” shouted one of the men at the stays, and at once his colleague waved his flag over his head. The man on the ridge repeated the signal, then moved quickly to one side and was lost to view.

I waited, curious to see what was next… although from all I could see nothing was happening. The militiamen paced to and fro, the cables stayed taut. I decided to walk over to the Traction men to find out what was going on.

No sooner was I on my feet and walking in their direction than the man who had been signalling waved his arms at me frantically.

“Keep clear!” he shouted.

“What’s wrong?”

“The cables are under maximum strain!”

I moved back.

The minutes passed, and there was no evident progress. Then I realized that the cables had been slowly tightening, until they were clear of the ground for most of their length.

I stared southwards at the dip in the ridge: the city had come into sight. From where I was sitting, I could just see the top corner of one of the forward towers, bulking up over the soil and rocks of the ridge. Even as I watched, more of the city came into view.

I moved in a broad arc, still maintaining a healthy distance from the cables, and stood behind the stays looking along the tracks towards the city. With painful slowness it winched itself up the further slope until it was only a few feet away from the five wheel-pulleys which carried the cables over the crest of the ridge. Here it stopped and the Traction men began their signalling once more.

There followed a long and complicated operation in which each of the cables was slackened off in turn while the wheelpulley was dismantled. I watched the first pulley removed in this way, then grew bored. I realized I was hungry, and suspecting that I was unlikely to miss anything of interest I went back to the hut and heated up a meal for myself.

There was no sign of Malchuskin, although nearly all his possessions were still in the hut.

I took my time over the meal, knowing that there were at least another two hours before the winching could be resumed. I enjoyed the solitude and the change from the strenuous work of the past day.

When I left the hut I remembered the militiaman’s warning about potential trouble from the men, and walked over to their dormitory. Most of them were outside sitting on the ground, watching the work on the pulleys. A few were talking, arguing loudly and gesticulating, but I decided the Militia saw threats where none existed. I walked back towards the track.

I glanced at the sun: it was not long to nightfall. I reasoned that the rest of the winching should not take long once the pulleys were out of the way, for it was clear that the rest of the tracks led along a downhill gradient.

In due course the final pulley was removed, and all five cables were once again taut. There was a short wait until, at a signal from the Traction man at the stays, the slow progress of the city continued… down the slope towards us. Contrary to what I had imagined, the city did not run smoothly of its own accord on the advantageous gradient. By the evidence of what I saw the cables were still taut; the city was still having to pull itself. As it came closer I detected a slackening of tension in the manner of the two Traction men, but their vigilance didn’t alter. Throughout the operation they concentrated their whole attention on the oncoming city.

Finally, when the huge construction was no more than about ten yards from the end of the tracks, the signaller raised his red flag and held it over his head. There was a large window running across the breadth of the forward tower, and here one of the many men who stood in view raised a similar flag. Seconds later, the city halted.

There was a pause of about two minutes, and then a man came through a doorway in the tower and stood on a small platform overlooking us.

“O.K… brakes secured,” he called down. “We’re slackening off now.”

The two Traction men came out from behind their metal shelters, and stretched their limbs exaggeratedly. Undoubtedly, they had been under considerable mental strain for several hours. One of them walked straight over to the edge of the city and urinated against its side. He grinned back at the other, then hauled himself up on to a ledge and clambered up the superstructure of the city itself until he reached the platform. The other man walked down past the cables — which were now visibly slacker — and disappeared under the lip of the city itself. The militiamen were still deployed in their defensive formation, but even they seemed to be more relaxed now.

The show was over. Seeing the city so near I was tempted to go inside myself, but I wasn’t sure whether I should. There was only Victoria to see, and she would be occupied with her work. Besides, Malchuskin had told me to stay with the men, and I thought I ought not disobey him.

As I was walking back towards the hut, a man came over to me from the direction of the city.

“Are you Apprentice Mann?” he said.

“Yes.”

“Jaime Collings, from the Barter guild. Track Malchuskin said there were some hired men here who were to be paid off.”

“That’s right.”

“How many?” said Collings.

“In our crew, fifteen. But there are several more.”

“Any complaints?”

“What do you mean?” I said.

“Complaints… any trouble, refusal to work.”

“They were a bit slow, and Malchuskin was always shouting at them.”

“Did they ever refuse to work?”

“No.”

“O.K. Do you know who their squad leader was?”

“There was one called Rafael, who spoke English.”

“He’ll do.”

Together we walked over to the huts, and we found the men. At the sight of Collings, silence fell abruptly.

I pointed out Rafael. Collings and he spoke together in Rafael’s language, and almost at once one of the others shouted back angrily. Rafael ignored him, and spoke to Collings, but it was clear that there was a lot of animosity. Once again someone shouted, and soon many of the others had joined in. A crowd gathered around Collings and Rafael, some of the men reaching through the packed bodies and jabbing at Collings.

“Do you need any help?” I shouted over the row at him, but he didn’t hear. I moved closer and shouted the question again.

“Get four of the Militia,” he called out in English. “Tell them to keep it low.”

I stared at the arguing men for a moment, then hurried away. There was still a small group of the Militia in the area of the cable-stays, and I went in that direction. They had evidently heard the noise of the argument, and were already looking towards the crowd of men. When they saw me running over to them, six of the men started out.

“He wants four militiamen!” I said, gasping from my running.

“Not enough. Leave that to me, sonny.”

The man who had spoken, who was evidently in charge, whistled loudly and beckoned towards some more of his men. Four more militiamen left their position near the city and ran over. The group of ten soldiers now ran towards the scene of the argument, with me trailing in the rear.

Without waiting to consult Collings, who was still in the centre of the mêlée, the militiamen charged into the group of men, swinging their drawn crossbows as clubs. Collings turned round suddenly, shouted at the militiamen, but was seized from behind by one of the men. He was dragged to the ground and the men moved in, kicking at him.

The militiamen were obviously trained for this kind of fighting, for they moved expertly and quickly, swinging their improvised clubs with great precision and accuracy. I watched for a moment, then struggled into the mass of men, trying to reach Collings. One of the hired men grabbed at my face, his fingers closing over my eyes. I tried to snatch my head away, but another man helped him. Suddenly I was free… and saw the two men who had attacked me fall to the floor. The militiamen who had rescued me made no sign of recognition, but carried on with their brutal clubbing.

The crowd was swelling now, as the other local men came to give assistance. I paid no heed to this and turned back into the thick of it, still trying to reach Collings. A narrow back was directly in front of me, clad in a thin white shirt sticking wetly to the skin. Unthinkingly, I slammed my arm around the man’s throat, pulled his head back, and punched him roughly in the ear. He fell to the ground. Another man was beyond him, and I tried the same tactic, but this time before I could land a blow I was kicked roughly by another man and I fell to the floor.

Through the mass of legs I saw Collings’s body on the ground, still being kicked. He was lying face-down, his arms defensively over his head. I tried to push my way across to him, but then I too was being kicked. Another foot slammed against the side of my head, and for a moment I blacked out. A second later I was conscious again, and fully aware of the vicious kicks being hurled at my body. Like Collings, I covered my head with my arms but pushed myself forward in the direction I had last seen him.

Everything around me seemed to be a surging forest of legs and bodies, and everywhere there was the roar of raised voices. Lifting my head for a moment I saw that I was only a few inches from Collings, and I pushed my way through until I was crouched on the ground beside him. I tried to stand, but was immediately felled by another kick.

Much to my surprise I realized Collings was still conscious. As I fell against him I felt his arm go over my shoulders.

“When I say,” he bawled in my ear, “stand up!”

A moment passed, and I felt his arm grip my shoulder more tightly.

“Now!”

With a massive effort we pushed ourselves upwards and at once he released me, swinging his fist round and catching one of the men full in the face. I did not have his same height, and the best I could manage was an elbow jab into someone’s stomach. For my trouble I was punched in the neck, and once more I fell to the ground. Someone grabbed me, and hauled me to my feet. It was Collings.

“Hold it!” He put both his arms around me, and pulled me against his chest. I held him myself, more weakly. “It’s O.K.,” he said. “Hold it.”

Gradually the jostling around us eased, then stopped. The men moved back and I slumped in Collings’s arms.

I was very dazed, and as I saw a red mist building up in my sight I caught a glimpse of a circle of militiamen, their armed crossbows raised and aimed. The hired men were moving away. I passed out.

I came round about a minute later. I was lying on the ground, and one of the militiamen was standing over me.

“He’s O.K.,” he shouted, and moved away.

I rolled painfully on to my side and saw that a short distance away Collings and the leader of the Militia were arguing angrily. About fifty yards away, the hired men were standing in a group, surrounded by the militiamen.

I tried to stand up, and managed it on my second attempt. Dazedly, I stood and watched while Collings continued to argue. In a moment the Militia officer walked away towards the group of prisoners, and Collings came over to me.

“How do you feel?” he said.

I tried to grin, but my face was swollen and painful. All I could do was stare at him. He had a huge red bruise up one side of his face, and his eye was beginning to close. I noticed that he held one arm around his waist.

“I’m O.K.,” I said.

“You’re bleeding.”

“Where?” I raised my hand to my neck — which was hurting abominably — and felt warm liquid. Collings moved over and looked at it.

“It’s just a bad graze,” he said. “Do you want to go back to the city and have treatment?”

“No,” I said. “What the hell happened?”

“The Militia over-reacted. I thought I told you to bring four.”

“They wouldn’t listen.”

“No, they’re like that.”

“But what was it all about?” I said. “I’ve worked with those men for a long time and they’ve never attacked us before.”

“There’s a lot of built-up resentment,” said Collings. “Specifically, it was that three of the men have wives in the city. They weren’t going to leave without them.”

“Those men are from the city?” I said, not sure I had heard properly.

“No… I said that their wives are there. These men are all locals, hired from a near-by village.”

“That’s what I thought. But what are their wives doing in the city?”

“We bought them.”

8

I slept uncomfortably that night. Alone in the hut I undressed carefully and looked at the damage. One side of my chest was a mass of bruises, and there were several deep and painful scratches. The wound on my neck had stopped bleeding, but I washed it in warm water and put on it some ointment I found in Malchuskin’s first-aid box. I discovered that in the fight one of my fingernails had been badly torn, and my jaw ached when I tried to move it.

I thought again about returning to the city as Collings had suggested — it was, after all, only a matter of a few hundred yards away — but in the end thought better of it. I had no wish to draw attention to myself by appearing in the sterile-clean surroundings of the city looking as if I had just come out of a drunken brawl. The truth wasn’t too far from that, but even so I thought I would lick my own wounds.

I tried to sleep, only managing to doze off for a few minutes at a time.

In the morning I was awake early, and got up. I didn’t wish to see Malchuskin before I had had a chance to clean myself up further. My whole body ached, and I could move only slowly.

When he arrived, Malchuskin was in a bad mood.

“I heard,” he said straight away. “Don’t try to explain.”

“I can’t understand what happened.”

“You were instrumental in starting a brawl.”

“It was the Militia…” I said weakly.

“Yes, and you ought to know by now that you keep the Militia away from the tooks. They lost a few men some miles back, and there are a few scores to settle. Any excuse, and those stupid bastards go in and start clubbing.”

“Collings was in trouble,” I said. “Something had to be done.”

“All right, it wasn’t entirely your fault. Collings says now that he could have handled it if you hadn’t brought the Militia in… but he also admits that he told you to fetch them.”

“That’s right.”

“O.K. then, but think next time.”

“What do we do now?” I said. “We’ve no labourers.”

“There are more coming today. The work will be slow at first, because we’ll have to train them for it. But the advantage is that the resentments won’t start at once, and they’ll work harder. It’s later, when they get time to think, that the trouble begins.”

“But why do they resent us so? Surely, we pay for their services.”

“Yes, but at our price. This is a poor region. The soil’s bad, and there’s not much food. We pass by in our city, offer them what they need… and they take it. But they get no long-term benefit, and I suppose we take more than we give.”

“We should give more.”

“Maybe.” Malchuskin looked indifferent. “That’s none of our concern. We work the track.”

We had to wait several hours for the new men to arrive. During that time Malchuskin and I went to the dormitory huts vacated by the previous men and cleaned them out. The previous occupants had been hustled away by the militiamen during the night, but they’d been given time to collect their belongings. There was a lot that was left though: mainly old and worn garments and scraps of food. Maichuskin warned me to keep an eye open for any kind of message that might have been left for the new men; neither he nor I discovered anything of this sort.

Later, we went outside and burned anything that had been left.

Around midday a man from the Barter guild came over to us and said that the new labourers would be with us shortly. We were made a formal apology about what had happened the previous evening, and told that in spite of much discussion it had been decided that the Militia guard would be strengthened for the time being. Malchuskin protested, but the Barter guildsman could only agree: the decision had been taken against his own opinion.

I was in two minds about this. On the one hand I had no great admiration for the militiamen, but if their presence could avert a repetition of the trouble then I supposed it was inevitable.

Malchuskin was beginning to fret about the delay. I presumed that this was because of the ever-present necessity to make up lost time, but when I mentioned this he was not as concerned about this as I’d thought.

“We’ll make time on the optimum on the next winching,” he said. “The delay last time was because of the ridge. That’s behind us now and the land’s fairly level ahead of us for the next few miles. I’m more concerned about the state of the track behind the city.”

“The Militia will be protecting it,” I said.

“Yes… but they can’t stop it buckling. That’s the main risk, the longer it’s left.”

“Why?”

Maichuskin looked at me sharply. “We’re a long way south of optimum. You know what that means?”

“No.”

“You haven’t been down past yet?”

“What does that mean?”

“A long way south of the city.”

“No… I haven’t.”

“Well when you go down there you’ll find out what happens. In the meantime, take my word for it. The longer we leave the track laid south of the city, the more risk there is of it becoming unusable.”

There was still no sign of the hired men, and Malchuskin left me and went over and spoke to two more Track guildsmen who had just come out of the city. In a while he returned.

“We’ll wait another hour, and if no one’s come by then we’ll second some men from one of the other guilds and start work. We can’t wait any longer.”

“Can you do that, use other guilds?”

“Hired men are a luxury, Helward,” he said. “In the past the track-laying was done by guildsmen alone. Moving the city’s the main priority and nothing stands in the way. If we had to, we’d have everyone in the city out here laying the tracks.”

Suddenly he seemed to relax, and lay back on the ground and closed his eyes. The sun was almost directly overhead and it seemed hotter than usual. I noticed that over to the north-west there was a line of dark clouds, and that the air felt stiller and more humid than normal. Even so, the sun was still untouched by clouds and with my body still sore from its beating I would rather lie here lazily than be working on the track.

A few minutes later Malchuskin sat up and looked northwards. Coming towards us was a large band of men, led by five of the Barter guildsmen wearing their regalia of cloaks and colours.

“Good… now we start work,” said Malchuskin.

In spite of his barely concealed relief there was much that had to be done before work could begin. The men had to be organized into four groups, and an English-speaking one appointed leader. Then bunks had to be allotted in the huts, and their possessions stowed away. Maichuskin looked optimistic throughout all this, in spite of the additional delays.

“They’re looking hungry,” he said. “Nothing like an empty belly to keep them working.”

They were indeed a dishevelled lot. They all had clothes of sorts but very few had any shoes, and most of them wore their hair and beards long. Their eyes were deep-sunken in their faces, and several sported stomachs swollen by lack of proper food. I noticed that one or two walked with discomfort, and one had a mutilated arm.

“Are they fit to work?” I asked Maichuskin quietly.

“Not properly. But a few days of work and a proper diet, and they’ll be O.K. A lot of tooks look like this when we first hire them.”

I was shocked by the condition they were in, and reflected that the local standard of living must be as bad as Maichuskin had made out. If this were so I could better understand the way resentment grew against the people of the city. I supposed that what the city gave in return for the labourers was a long way beyond what they were generally accustomed to, and this gave them a glimpse of a better fed, more comfortable life. As the city passed on, they would have to revert to their former primitive existence, the city meanwhile having taken of the people’s best.

More delays, as the men were given food, but Malchuskin was looking more optimistic than ever.

Finally, we were ready to begin. The men formed themselves into four groups, each headed by a guildsman. We set off for the city, collected the four track bogies, and headed south down the tracks in grand style. To each side of the rails the militiamen continued their guard, and as we crossed the ridge we saw that down in the valley we had recently vacated there was a strong guard around the track buffers.

With four track-teams now at work there was the additional incentive of competition I had noticed before. Perhaps it was too early for the men to respond to this, but that would come later.

Malchuskin stopped the bogie a short distance before the buffer, and explained to the group leader — a middle-aged man named Juan — what had to be done. Juan related this to the men, and they nodded their understanding.

“They haven’t the vaguest idea what they’ve got to do,” Malchuskin said to me, chuckling. “But they’ll pretend to understand.”

The first task was to dismantle the buffer, and move it up the tracks to a position just behind the city. Malchuskin and I had only just started to demonstrate how the buffer was dismantled when the sun went in abruptly and the temperature dropped.

Malchuskin glanced up at the sky. “We’re in for a storm.”

After this remark he paid no more attention to the weather, and we continued with the work. A few minutes later we heard the first distant grumble of thunder, and a short while after that the rain began to fall. The hired men looked up in alarm, but Maichuskin kept them going. Soon the storm was on top of us, the lightning flashing and the thunder cracking in a way that terrified me. We were all soon drenched, but the work continued. I heard the first complaints, but Malchuskin — through Juan — stilled them.

As we were taking the component parts of the buffer back up the track, the storm cleared and the sun came out again. One of the men began to sing, and soon the others joined in. Malchuskin looked happy. The day’s work finished with erecting the buffer a few yards behind the city; the other crews also stopped work when they had built theirs.

The next day we started early. Malchuskin still looked happy but expressed his desire to get on with the work as fast as we could.

As we tried to take up the southernmost part of the track, I saw at first hand the cause of his worry. The tie-bars holding the rails to the sleepers had bent, and had to be wrenched away manually, bending them beyond re-use. Similarly, the action of the pressure of the tie-bars against the sleepers had split the wood in many places — though Malchuskin declared they could be used again — and many of the concrete foundations had cracked. Fortunately, the rails themselves were still in a usable condition; although Maichuskin said they had buckled slightly, he reckoned they could be straightened again without too much difficulty. He held a brief conference with the other Track guildsmen, and it was decided to dispense with the use of the bogies for the moment, and concentrate on digging up the track before any more of it became distorted. As it was still some two miles between where we were working and the city, each journey in the bogie took a long time and this decision made sense.

By the end of that day we had worked our way up the track to a point where the buckling effect was only just beginning to be felt. Malchuskin and the others declared themselves satisfied, we loaded the bogies with as many of the rails and the sleepers as they would hold, and called a halt again.

And so the track-labours continued. By the time my ten-day period came to an end, the track-removal was well advanced, the hired men were working well as teams, and already the new track to the north of the city was being laid. When I left Malchuskin he was as contented as I had ever seen him, and I felt not in the least guilty about taking my two days’ leave.

9

Victoria was waiting for me in her room. By this time the bruises and scratches from the fracas had mostly healed, and I had decided to say nothing of it. Word of the scuffle had evidently not reached her, for she did not ask me about it.

After leaving Malchuskin’s hut in the morning I had walked across to the city, enjoying that early part of the morning before it became too hot, and with this in mind I suggested to Victoria that we could go up to the platform.

“I think it’ll be locked at this time of day,” she said. “I’ll go and see.”

She was gone for a few seconds, then returned to confirm that this was so.

“I suppose it’ll be open some time after midday,” I said, thinking that by this time the sun would have passed from the view of the platform.

“Take your clothes off,” she said. “They need laundering again.”

I started to undress but suddenly Victoria came over to me and put her arms around me. We kissed, spontaneously realizing that we were pleased to see each other.

“You’re putting on weight,” she said, as she slipped the shirt from my shoulders and ran her hand lightly across my chest.

“It’s all the work I’m doing,” I said, and began to unbutton her clothes.

As a consequence of this change in our plans it wasn’t until some time later that Victoria took my clothes away to be laundered, leaving me to enjoy the comforts of a proper bed.

After we had eaten some lunch we discovered that the way to the platform was now open, and so we moved up there. This time we were not alone; two men from the education administration were there before us. They recognized us both from our days in the crèche, and soon we were involved in a bland conversation about what we had been doing since coming of age. From Victoria’s expression I gathered that she was as bored as I was with this, but neither of us liked to make a move to finish it.

In due course the men bade us farewell and returned to the interior of the city.

Victoria winked at me, then giggled.

“God, I’m glad we’re not still in the crèche,” she said.

“So am I. And I thought they were interesting when they were teaching us.”

We sat down together on one of the seats and looked out across the landscape. From this part of the city it was not possible to see what was happening immediately at the side of the city, and even as I knew the track-crews would be carting the rails from the southern side to the north, it was not possible to see them.

“Helward… why does the city move?”

“I don’t know. Not exactly, anyway.”

She said: “I don’t know what the guilds imagine we think about this. No one ever says anything about it, though one has only to come up here to see the city has moved. And yet if you ask anyone about it you’re told it’s not the concern of an administrator. Are we not supposed to ask questions?”

“They tell you nothing?”

“Nothing at all. A couple of days ago I came up here and discovered that the city had moved. A few days before that the platform had been locked for two days on end, and word was passed round to secure loose property. But that was all.”

“O.K.,” I said, “you tell me something. At the time the city was moving, were you aware of it?”

“No… or I think not. Remember, I didn’t realize until afterwards. Thinking back, I don’t recall anything unusual the day it must have been moved, but I’ve never left the city and so I suppose all the time I was growing up I must have got used to occasional moves. Does the city travel along a road?”

“A system of tracks.”

“But why?”

“I shouldn’t tell you.”

“You promised you would. Anyway, I don’t see what harm it would do to tell me how it moves… it’s pretty clear it does.”

The old dilemma again, but what she said made sense even though it was in conflict with the oath. Gradually, I was coming to wonder about the continued validity of the oath, even as I felt it eroding about me.

I said: “The city is moving towards something known as the optimum, which lies due north of the city. At the moment the city is about three and a half miles south of optimum.”

“So it will stop soon?”

“No… and that’s what isn’t clear to me. Apparently, even if the eity ever did reach optimum it couldn’t stop as the optimum itself is always moving.”

“Then what’s the point of trying to reach it?”

There was no answer to that, because I didn’t know.

Victoria continued to ask questions, and in the end I told her about the work on the tracks. I tried to keep my descriptions to the minimum, but it was difficult to know how far I was breaching the oath, in spirit if not in practice. I found that everything I said to her I qualified immediately afterwards with a reference to the oath.

Finally, she said: “Look, don’t say any more about this. You obviously don’t want to.”

“I’m just confused,” I said. “I’m forbidden to talk, but you’ve made me see that I don’t have any right to withhold from you what I know.”

Victoria was silent for a minute or two.

“I don’t know about you,” she said eventually, “but in the last few days I’ve begun to develop a rather strong dislike for the guild system.”

“You’re not alone. I haven’t heard many advocate it.”

“Do you think it could be that those in charge of the guilds keep the system in operation after it has outlived its original purpose? It seems to me that the system works by suppression of knowledge. I don’t see what that achieves. It has made me very discontented, and I’m sure I’m not alone.”

“Perhaps I’ll be the same when I become a full guildsman.”

“I hope not,” she said, and laughed.

“There is one thing,” I said. “Whenever I’ve asked Malchuskin — he’s the man I’m working with — the sort of questions you’ve asked me, he says that I’ll find out in due course. It’s as if there is a good reason for the guilds, and it relates in some way to the reason the city has to move. So far, all I’ve learnt is the city does have to move… but that’s all. When I’m out there it’s all work, and no time to ask questions. But what is clear is that moving the city is the first priority.”

“If you ever find out, will you tell me?”

I thought for a moment. “I don’t see how I can promise that.”

Victoria stood up abruptly and walked to the far side of the platform. She stood at the rail, looking out across the roof of the city building below at the countryside. I made no move to join her; it was an impossible situation. Already I had said too much, and in her demands that I say more Victoria was placing too great a burden on me. And yet I couldn’t deny her.

After a few minutes she returned to the seat and sat down beside me.

“I’ve found out how we get married,” she said.

“Another ceremony?”

“No, it’s much simpler. We just have to sign a form and give a copy to each of our chiefs. I’ve got the forms downstairs… they’re really very straightforward.”

“So we could sign them right away.”

“Yes.” She looked at me seriously. “Do you want to?”

“Of course. Do you?”

“Yes.”

“In spite of everything?”

“What do you mean?” she said.

“In spite of the fact that you and I can’t seem to talk without coming across something I either can’t or shouldn’t tell you, and the fact that you seem to blame me for it.”

“Does it worry you?” she said.

“A lot, yes.”

“We could postpone getting married if you prefer.”

“Would that solve anything?” I said.

I was uncertain of what it would mean if Victoria and I broke off our engagement. Because the guilds had been instrumental in formally introducing us, what new breach of the system would it imply to say now that we did not intend to marry? On the other hand, once the formal introduction was out of the way there appeared to be no pressure on us to marry immediately. As far as she and I were concerned the vexations of the limitations placed by the oath were the only differences between us. Without those, we seemed to be perfectly suited to each other.

“Let’s leave it for a while,” said Victoria.

Later in the day we returned to her room and the mood lightened considerably. We talked a lot, carefully skirting those topics of conversation we both knew caused problems… and by the time we went to bed our attitude had changed. When we woke up in the morning we signed the forms and took them along to the guild leaders. Future Clausewitz was not in the city but I found another Future guildsman, and he accepted it on Clausewitz’s behalf. Everyone seemed pleased, and later that day Victoria’s mother spent a lot of time with us, telling us of what new freedoms and advantages we would enjoy as a married couple.

Before I left the city to rejoin Malchuskin on the tracks I cleared what remained of my possessions from the crèche, and moved in officially with Victoria.

I was a married man, and I was six hundred and fifty-two miles old.

10

For the next few miles my life settled into a routine that was for the most part agreeable. During my visits to the city my life with Victoria was comfortable, happy, and loving. She would tell me much of her work, and through her I came to learn how the day to day life of the city was administered. Sometimes she would ask me about my work outside, but her early curiosity had either faded or she now thought better of asking me, for the resentments never again became as obvious as at first.

Outside, my apprenticeship progressed. The more work outside the city I participated in, the more I realized how much of a mutual effort the city’s moving was.

At the end of my last mile with Malchuskin I was transferred on order of Clausewitz to the Militia. This came as an unpleasant surprise, as I had assumed that on completion of my training on the tracks I would start work with my own guild of Futures. However, I discovered that I was to be transferred to another first-order guild every three miles.

I was sorry to leave Malchuskin, for his simple application to the strenuous work on the tracks had an undeniable appeal. After we were past the ridge the terrain had been easier for track-laying, and as the new group of hired men continued to labour without untoward complaint his discontent had seemed to fade.

Before reporting to the Militia I sought out Clausewitz. I did not wish to make too much of an issue, but I asked him for the reason behind the decision.

“It’s standard practice, Mann,” he said.

“But, sir, I thought by now I should be ready to enter my own guild.”

He sat in a relaxed manner behind his desk, not in the least disturbed by my mild protest. I guessed that such a query was not unusual.

“We have to maintain a full Militia. Sometimes it becomes necessary to draft other guildsmen to defend the city. If so, we do not have the time then to train them. Every first-order guildsman has served time in the Militia, and so must you.”

There was no argument with that, and so I became Crossbowman Second Class Mann for the next three miles.

I detested this period, fuming at the waste of time and the apparent insensitivity of the men I was forced to work with. I knew that I was only making life difficult for myself, and so it was, for within a few hours I was probably the most unpopular recruit in the entire Militia. My only relief was the presence of two other apprentices — one with the Barter guild and another with the Track guild — who seemed to share my outlook. They, however, had the fortunate ability to adapt to the new company and suffered less than I.

The quarters for the Militia were in the area next to the stables at the very base of the city. These consisted of two large dormitories, and we were obliged to live, eat, and sleep in conditions of intolerable overcrowding and filth. During the days we went through apparently endless periods of training involving long marches across the countryside; and were taught to fight unarmed, taught to swim rivers, taught to climb trees, taught to eat grass, and any number of other futile activities. At the end of the three miles I had learned to shoot with a crossbow, and I had learned how to defend myself when unarmed. I had made myself some bitter personal enemies, and I knew I should have to keep out of their way for some considerable time to come. I wrote it off to experience.

After this I was transferred to the Traction guild, and at once I was much happier. Indeed, from this point to the end of my apprenticeship my life was pleasant and fruitful.

The men responsible for the traction of the city were quiet, hard-working, and intelligent. They moved without haste, but they saw that the work for which they were responsible was done, and done well.

My one previous experience of their work — when watching the city being winched — had not revealed to me the extent of their operations. Traction was not simply a question of moving the city but also involved its internal affairs.

I discovered that a large nuclear reactor was situated in the centre of the city, on the lowest level. It was from this that the city derived all its power, and the men who operated it were also responsible for the city’s communication and sanitary systems. Many of the Traction guildsmen were water-engineers, and I learned that throughout the city there was a complicated system of pumping which ensured that almost every last drop of water was continually recycled. The food-synthesizer, I discovered to my horror, was based on a sewage filtration device, and although it was operated and programmed by administrators inside the city, it was in the Traction pumping-room that the quantity (and in some respects the quality) of synthesized food was ultimately determined.

It was almost as a secondary function that the reactor was used to power the winches.

There were six of these, and they were built in a massive steel housing running east-west across the city’s base. Of the six, only five were used at any one time, the other being overhauled by rotation. The primary cause for concern with the winches was the bearings, which, after many thousands of miles’ use, were very worn. During the time I was with the Traction men there was a certain amount of debate on the subject of whether the winching should be carried out on four winches — thus allowing more time for bearing servicing — or should be increased to all six winches, thus reducing wear. The consensus seemed to be to continue with the present system, for no major decisions were taken.

One of the jobs I worked on with the Traction men was checking the cables. This too was a recurring task for the cables were as old as the winches, and breakages happened more frequently than was ideal, which was never. Each of the six cables used by the city had been repaired several times, and in addition to the weaknesses this caused there were several parts of each cable which were beginning to fray. Before each winching, therefore, each of the five cables to be used had to be checked over foot by foot, cleaned and greased, and bound where frays occurred.

Always in the reactor-room, or working outside on the cables, the talk was of catching up the lost ground towards the optimum. How the winches might be improved, how new cables might be obtained. The entire guild seemed to be alive with ideas, but they were not men fond of theories. Much of their work was concerned with mundane matters; for instance, while I was with the guild a new project was begun to construct an additional water-reservoir in the city.

One pleasurable benefit of this aspect of my apprenticeship was that I was able to spend the nights with Victoria. Although I came back to the room at night hot and dirty from my work, I was for this short period enjoying the comforts of a domestic existence and the satisfactions of a worthwhile job.

One day, working outside the city as one of the cables was being hauled mechanically out towards the distant stayemplacement, I asked the guildsman I was with about Gelman Jase.

“An old friend of mine, apprenticed to your guild. Do you know him?”

“About your age is he?”

“A bit older.”

“We had a couple of apprentices through a few miles back. Can’t remember their names. I can check, if you like.”

I was curious to see Jase. It had been a long time since I’d seen him, and it would be good to compare notes with someone who was going through the same process as myself.

Later that day I was told that Jase had been one of the two apprentices the man had mentioned. I asked how I could contact him.

“He won’t be around for a while.”

“Where is he?” I said.

“He’s left the city. Down past.”

Too soon, my time with the Traction guild ended and I was transferred to the Barter guild for the next three miles. I greeted this news with mixed feelings, having witnessed one of their operations at first hand. To my surprise I learnt I was to work with Barter Collings, and to my further surprise I discovered it was he who had requested I work with him.

“I heard you were joining the guild for three miles,” he said. “Thought I’d like to show you our work isn’t all dealing with rioting tooks.”

Like the other guildsmen, Collings had a room in one of the forward towers of the city, and here he showed me a long roll of paper with a detailed plan drawn on it.

“You needn’t take too much notice of most of this. It’s a map of the terrain ahead of us, and it’s compiled by the Futures.” He showed me the symbols for mountains, rivers, valleys, steep gradients — all vital information for those who planned the route the city would take on its long slow journey towards optimum. “These black squares represent settlements. That’s what we’re concerned with. How many languages do you speak?”

I told him that I had never found languages easy when in the crèche, and only spoke French, and that haltingly.

“As well you’re not planning to join our guild permanently,” he said. “Ability with languages is our stock in trade.”

He told me that the local inhabitants spoke Spanish, and that he and the other Barter guildsmen had to learn this from one of the books in the city library as there were no people of Spanish descent in the city. They got by, but there were recurring difficulties with dialects.

Collings told me that of all the first-order guilds only the Track guild used hired labour regularly. Sometimes the BridgeBuilders had to hire men for short periods, but by and large the major part of the Barters’ work was in hiring manual labourers for the track-work… and what Collings referred to as “transference.”

“What is that?” I said immediately.

Collings said: “It’s what makes us so unpopular. The city looks for settlements where food is short, where poverty is widespread. Fortunately for the city this is a poor region, so we have a strong bargaining position. We can offer them food, technology to help their farming, medicines, electrical power; in return, the men labour for us, and we borrow their young women. They come to the city for a short while, and perhaps they will give birth to new citizens.”

“I’ve heard of this,” I said. “I can’t believe it happens.”

“Why not?”

“Isn’t it… immoral?” I said hesitantly.

“Is it immoral to want to keep the city peopled? Without fresh blood we would die out within a couple of generations. Most children born to people in the city are male.”

I remembered the fight that had started. “But the women who transfer to the city are sometimes married, aren’t they?”

“Yes… but they stay only to give birth to one child. After that, they are free to leave.”

“What happens to the child?”

“If it is a girl, she stays in the city and is brought up in the crèche. If it is a boy, the mother may take it with her or may leave it in the city.”

And then I understood the diffidence with which Victoria had spoken on this subject. My mother had come to the city from outside, and afterwards had left. She had not taken me with her; I had been rejected. But there was no pain in this realization.

The Barter guildsmen, like those of the Futures guild, rode out across the countryside on horses. I had never learnt to ride, and so when we left the city and headed north I walked beside Collings. Later, he showed me how to ride the horse, telling me that I would need to ride when I joined my father’s guild. The technique came slowly; at first I was frightened of the horse and found it difficult to control. Gradually, as I realized the animal was docile and good-natured, my confidence grew and the horse — as if understanding this — responded better.

We did not travel far from the city. There were two settlements to the north-east, and we visited them both. We were greeted with some curiosity, but Collings’s assessment was that neither settlement displayed any great need for the commodities the city could offer, and so he made no attempts to negotiate. He told me that the city’s needs for labour were met for the moment, and that there were enough transferred women to be going on with.

After the first journey away from the city — which took nine days, and during which we lived and slept rough — I returned to the city with Collings, to hear the news that the Council of Navigators had given the go-ahead for a bridge to be built. According to the interpretation Collings gave me, there were two possible routes ahead of the city. One angled the city towards the north-west, and although avoiding a narrow chasm led through hilly country with much broken rock; the other led across more level country but required a bridge to be built across the chasm. It was this latter course which had been selected, and so all available labour was to be diverted temporarily to the Bridge-Builders guild.

As the bridge was now the major priority, Malchuskin and another Track guildsman and each of their gangs were drafted, about one half of the entire Militia force was relieved of other duties to assist, and several men from the Traction guild were to supervise the laying of the rail-way across the bridge. Ultimate responsibility for the design and structure of the bridge lay with the Bridge-Builders guild itself, and they requested fifty additional hired labourers from the Barter guild.

Collings and another Barter guildsman left the city at once, and headed for the local settlements; meanwhile, I was taken north to the site of the bridge, and was placed in the charge of the supervising guildsman, Bridges Lerouex, Victoria’s father.

When I saw the chasm I realized that the bridge presented a major engineering problem. It was wide — about sixty yards across at the point selected for the bridge — and the chasm walls were crumbly and broken. A fast-running stream lay at the bottom. In addition, the northern side of the chasm was some ten feet lower than the southern side, which meant that the track would have to be laid across a ramp for some distance after the chasm.

The Bridge-Builders guild had decided that the bridge must be suspended. There was insufficient time to build an arch or cantilever bridge, and the other favoured method — that of a timber scaffolding support in the chasm itself — was impracticable owing to the nature of the chasm.

Work started immediately on the building of four towers: two each to north and south of the chasm. These were apparently insubstantial affairs, built of tubular steel. During the construction one man fell from a tower and was killed. The work continued without delay. Shortly after this I was allowed to return to the city for one of my periods of leave and while I was there the city was winched forward. It was the first time I had been inside the city knowing that a winching operation was taking place, and I was interested to note that there was no discernable sensation of movement, although there was a slight increase in background noise, presumably from the winch motors.

It was during this leave too that Victoria told me she was pregnant; an announcement that caused her mother much joy. I was delighted, and for one of the few times in my life I drank too much wine and made a fool of myself. No one seemed to mind.

Back outside the city, I saw that the usual work on tracks and cables continued — if with a general shortage of labour — and that we were now only two miles from the site of the bridge. Speaking to one of the Traction guildsmen as I passed, I learnt that the city was only one and a half miles from optimum.

This information did not register until later, when I realized that the bridge itself must actually be to the north of optimum by about half a mile.

There followed a long period of delay. The bridge-building proceeded slowly. After the accident more stringent safety precautions were introduced, and there were recurring checks by Lerouex’s men on the strength of the structure. As we worked, we learnt that the track-laying operations at the city were going slowly; in one sense this suited us, as the bridge was a long way from being ready, but in another it was a cause for anxiety. Any time lost in the endless pursuit of the optimum was not good.

One day, word passed around the site that the bridge itself was at the point of optimum. This news caused me to look anew at our surroundings, but there seemed to be nothing unusual about optimum. Once again, I wondered what its special significance was, but as the days passed and the optimum moved on in its arcane way northwards it moved also from my thoughts.

With the resources of the city now being concentrated on the bridge, there was no chance of furthering my apprenticeship. Every ten days I was allowed my leave — as were all guildsmen on the site — but there was no thought now of my acquiring a general knowledge of the functions of the various guilds. The bridge was the priority.

Other work continued, though. A few yards to the south of the bridge a cable-stay emplacement was built, and the tracks were run up to it. In due course the city was winched along the tracks, and it stood silently near the chasm waiting for the completion of the bridge.

The most difficult and demanding aspect of the bridge-building came with running the chains across the chasm from the south towers to the north, then suspending the rail-way from them. Time was passing and Lerouex and the other guildsmen grew worried. I understood this was because as the optimum moved slowly northwards away from the bridge, the construction of the bridge itself would soon be laying itself open to the same problem that Malchuskin had shown me with the tracks to the south of the city: it was liable to buckle. Although the design of the bridge was intended to compensate for this to a certain extent, there was a definite limit to how long we could delay the crossing. Now work continued through the nights, lit by powerful arc-lamps powered from within the city. Leave was suspended, and a system of shifts devised.

As the slabs of the rail-way were laid, Maichuskin and the others put down tracks. Meanwhile, cable-stays were being erected on the northern side, just beyond the elaborate ramps that had been built.

The city was so close by, we were able to sleep in our quarters inside it, and I found a confusing difference between the extreme activity of the bridge site and the comparatively calm and normal atmosphere of everyday work inside the city. My behaviour evidently reflected this confusion, because for a while Victoria’s questions about the work outside were renewed.

Soon, though, the bridge was ready. There was a further delay of a day while Lerouex and the other Bridges guildsmen carried out a series of elaborate tests. Their expressions stayed concerned, even as they pronounced the bridge safe. During the hours of the night the city prepared for the winching.

As dawn was breaking, the Traction men signalled the clear… and with infinite stealth the city inched forward. I had taken a vantage point on one of the two suspension towers on the south side of the chasm, and as the city’s forward wheels moved slowly on to the tracks on the rail-way itself I felt a tremble of vibration through the tower as the chains took the strain. In the weak light of the rising sun I saw the suspension chains being tugged into a deeper curve by the weight, the rail-way itself clearly sagging with the immense burden being placed on it. I looked at the Bridges guildsman nearest to me, who was squatting on the tower a few yards away from me. His whole attention was on a load-meter, which was connected to the overhead chains. No one watching the delicate operation moved or spoke, as if the slightest interruption could disturb the balance. The city moved on, and soon the entire length of the bridge rail-way was bearing the weight of the city.

The silence was broken abruptly. With a loud cracking noise that echoed round the rocky walls of the chasm one of the winching cables snapped, and whiplashed back, slicing through a line of militiamen. A physical tremor ran through the structure of the bridge, and from deep inside the city I heard the rising whine of the suddenly free winch, sharply cut off as the Traction man controlling the differential drive phased it out. Now on only four cables, and moving visibly slower, the city continued on its way. On the northern side of the chasm, the broken cable lay snaked across the ground, curling over the bodies of five of the militiamen.

The most critical part of the crossing was done: the city moved between the two northern towers, and began to slide slowly down the ramps towards the cable-stays. Soon it stopped, but no one spoke. There was no sense of relief, no cry of celebration. On the far side of the chasm the bodies of the militiamen were being placed on stretchers, ready to be taken into the city. The city itself was safe for the moment, but there was much to be done. The bridge had caused an unavoidable delay, and now the city was four and a half miles behind optimum. The tracks had to be taken up, the broken cable repaired. The suspension towers and chains had to be dismantled, and saved for possible future use.

Soon the city would be winching again… ever onward, ever northwards, heading for the optimum that managed somehow to be always a few miles ahead.