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been a sort of technological cul-de-sac."
    "These coils aren't valuable, then?"
    "Only as curios. They're quite pretty."
    "So what's Clytie Potts going to do with them?" asked Wren.
    Tom shrugged again. "She must have a buyer, I suppose. Maybe she knows a collector."
    "We should go after her," said Wren.
    "Where to? I asked at the harbor office last night. The Archaeopteryx didn't leave any details of her destination."
    "She'll be heading east," said Wren, with the confidence of someone who had been studying the air trade for a whole
    season and felt she had its measure. "Everybody is going east now that the truce seems to be holding, and we should too. Even if we don't find Clytie Potts, there will be good trading, and I'd love to see the central Hunting Ground. We could go to Airhaven. The Registration Bureau there must have some more details about Cruwys so-called Morchard and her ship."
    Tom finished his coffee and said, "I'd been thinking you might want to go south this spring. Your friend Theo is still in Zagwa, isn't he? I expect we could get permission to land there...."
    "Oh, I hadn't really thought about that," said Wren casually, and blushed bright red.
    "I liked Theo," Tom went on. "He's a good lad. Kind and well-mannered. Handsome, too...."
    "Daddy!" said Wren sternly, warning him not to tease. Then she relented, sighed, and took his hand. "Look, the reason Theo has such good manners is that he's really posh. His family are rich, and they live in a city that was part of a great civilization when our ancestors were still wearing animal skins and squabbling over scraps in the ruins of Europe. Why would Theo be interested in me?"
    "He'd be a fool if he isn't," said her father, "and he didn't strike me as a fool."
    Wren gave an exasperated sigh. Why couldn't Dad understand? Theo was in his own city, surrounded by lots of girls far prettier than her. His family might have married him off by now, and even if they hadn't, he was sure to have forgotten all about Wren. That kiss, which had meant so much to her, had probably meant nothing at all to Theo. So she did not want to make a fool of herself by chasing off to Zagwa,
    knocking on his door, and expecting them to pick up where they'd left off.
    She said, "Let's go east, Dad. Let's go and find Clytie Potts."
    4 Lady Naga
    ***
    THEO, WHO HAD BEEN ADRIFT for days on slow tides of pain and anesthetic, came to the surface at last in a clean, white room in Zagwa Hospital. Through veils of mosquito netting and smudged memories he could see an open window, and evening sunlight on the mountains. His mother and father and his sisters Miriam and Kaelo were gathered around his bed, and as he gradually recovered his senses, Theo realized that his wounds must have been very grave indeed, for instead of teasing him and telling him how silly he looked lying there all bruised and bandaged, his sisters seemed inclined to cry and kiss him. "Thank God, thank God," his mother kept saying, and his father, leaning over him, said, "You're going to be all right, Theo. But it was touch and go for a while."
    "The knife," said Theo, remembering, touching his stomach,
    which was wrapped in clean, crisp bandages. "The rockets ... They hit the citadel!"
    "They exploded quite harmlessly in the gardens," his father assured him. "Nobody was hurt. Nobody but you. You were badly wounded, Theo, and you lost a lot of blood. When our aviators brought you in, the doctors were ready to give you up for dead. But the ambassador heard of your plight-- the Storm's ambassador, Lady Naga--and she came and worked on you herself. She used to be some sort of surgeon before her marriage. She certainly knows a thing or two about a person's insides. That is a claim to fame, eh, Theo? You have been healed by General Naga's wife!"
    "So you saved her life, and she saved yours," said Miriam.
    "She will be delighted to hear that you are on the mend!" said Mrs. Ngoni. "She was very impressed by your bravery, and takes a great